Ghosts of Soldiers
by KiloActual
Summary: With the loss of his father at the hands of Talon and the world believing him dead, James partners up with an old friend of his father, a man known by most as Soldier: 76 and as Overwatch agents are called back to active duty, the two vigilantes must make a decision. Join Overwatch or risk becoming a target as they continue their work to uncover what really happened to Overwatch.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everybody. This is probably a terrible idea considering I have three other stories also in progress but that's my problem.**

 **I'm going to apologize a head of time for any mistakes. Halfway through typing this, the Surface laptop I've been using to type all my stories decided to update itself to Windows 10 and now I have to get use to some of the new features as well as the features that have been removed, i.e. the auto correct and the auto capitalization at the start of a new sentence. So bear with me.**

 **I should probably mention some things about this story and how this story is going to work. Based on information that holds together in an odd way and my own healthy speculation, I like to believe that Soldier: 76 is somewhere in his mid to late 40s and Reaper is in his late 40s to early 50s since they're the only two that don't have set ages.**

 **I'm also going to do my best to keep to the lore of the series and the personalities of the heroes included into the story so basically we're going to have some rogue elements in this story due to how they act in canon or their allegiances.**

 **Anyways welcome to the story. Hope you guys enjoy this. Now disclaimer.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developers. Only the plot of this story and a few characters belong to me.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Alaska, United States, Five years since the shutdown of Overwatch and the Petra Acts_

The night was quiet as Soldier: 76 made his way through the woods. On normal occasions, 76 would never have made the trip out here unless it was following a lead on the downfall of Overwatch but this was an exception. He had received word from a old friend from his days when he was still called Jack Morrison. The man went by the codename Wraith and was part of the Enhanced Soldier Program as well as an Overwatch agent after the Omnic Crisis. When Overwatch was shut down, he stopped his work as a soldier and stayed home with his family. After reports of former Overwatch agent being executed, the family went into hiding, which was the last time he heard from him. As he made he continued on his way, he looked toward the main road and saw the headlights of a truck. Getting down, he watched the truck pass without slowing but as it passed, he noticed something that concerned him. On the side of the truck was the Talon insignia. Talon was a terrorist organization that Overwatch opposed before it was disbanded. According to reports he's come across, they've gotten bolder and powerful since the collapse of Overwatch. Them being here in such a remote location so close to a former Overwatch agent couldn't be a coincidence and it couldn't mean anything good. While he knows Wraith can handle himself, 76 didn't want to take the chance that. Getting up and running, 76 did his best to get catch up with the truck, regretting the choice to abandon the motorcycle he stole earlier. By the time the house came into view, he could see the flashes of gunfire in the windows and hear the distinct sound of a pulse rifle firing. As he got to the edge of the clearing, the firefight inside had already ended. Taking cover behind a nearby tree, the former commander of Overwatch stopped to observe what would happen next. After a few minutes of nothing happening, 76 moved up to the truck, only to find it empty, then house and quietly crept in.

The inside of the house was a mess. Bullet holes littered the walls and spent cartridge casings laid on the floor, next to several dead Talon operatives. Following the trial of destruction down a short hallway, more dead Talon operatives were laying about, making the total of 7 dead Talon soldiers. The door at the end of the hall was badly shot up. Pushing through the door, he checked his corners and when he saw it was clear.

"Jack." 76 turned to see his old friend laid against the wall. His breathing was labored and he was bleeding. Reacting on instinct, 76 grabbing his biotic field generator and was about to put it down when he was stopped. "Don't. I'll bleed out before the nanites can fix the damage." Observing the state his brother in arms was in, he hesitantly but understood that the man before him was right.

"I'm sorry, Darren." 76 said putting away the device and placing his pulse rifle next to Darren while Darren just chuckled and waved it off. At that moment, a young man that looked like he was in mid to late 20s ran in. He had the build of a soldier with a head of short jet black hair, styled much like his was back when he was Strike Commander, and a pair of the brown had on a plain black tee shirt and cargo pants. In his hands was an semi-auto pulse pistol very similar to the one Soldier: 76 carried in the holster on his thigh.

"Dad!" the young man said when he saw the two older men. His speed was similar to that of an enhanced soldier. "Shit. Alright, we got to stop the bleeding. Oh, man. Don't you dare die on me, dad, or mom's ghost will haunt the both of us." The young man grabbed a piece of cloth from the bed and tore it to use to stop the bleeding all while cursing under his breath. Darren just grabbed his son's arm and shook his head.

"James, stop. It's too late. Not even a shot of nanites can fix me now. Trust me, I tried." Darren said to his son before turning to Soldier: 76. "Jack, you remember my son, James." 76 just nodded toward the younger man. "James, go grab my old gear. It's your now. It's down in the basement behind a wall. Remember what I showed you?" James nodded. "Go, son." Hesitantly, James left the room to do what his father had told him.

"Is he...?" 76 began.

"Enhanced? Yeah but he's not completely like us since he never went through the enhancement program. All of his enhancements were passed down genetically from me and and his mother since we were both enhanced." Darren explained before coughing up some blood. "Oh god, dying suck." He mumbled to himself. "Jack, can you promise me something? Watch over him for me. James could use your guidance. He'll want pay back for what happened here and I know you're after the people who shutdown Overwatch, Talon being one of them."

"Are you sure about this?"

"I'm sure Emma will understand. I'd rather he be off fighting gangs and terrorists as a vigilante with someone I trust than off doing the same thing on his own and getting himself killed. He doesn't have the combat experience you do. I'm worried he'll make a mistake that'll cost him his life." Darren said reaching over with one hand into his pocket and pulled out a flash drive. "Here, this is all the data I gathered about, well, everything. Classified mission reports, Blackwatch connections in the criminal underground, organizations and persons of interest that opposed Overwatch. Everything." Darren lifted a shaky hand to give the device to Soldier: 76. "Make good use of it, Commander." He said before coughing out more blood. It was at that moment that James walked back in, wearing darkened armor that seen some wear and tear but overall was well maintained. It was light combat armor that gave him meant for recon units that provided protection from both ballistic and pulse munitions with a belt that had multiple pouches for storing ammunition and other equipment. Over his face was a tactical visor and mask similar to the one Soldier: 76 had except the visor was blue instead of red and a hood was pulled over his head. He had some armor on his arm and legs which were shoulder armor, elbow pads, forearm guards with a tactical pad installed into the left one, knee pads, a drop holster on his right thigh, and armor covering his shins and the top of his combat boots.

"Are you sure there isn't anything I can do, dad?" James asked kneeling next to his father and taking off his mask and visor and pulling off the hood.

"Yeah. Don't worry about me, James. We both knew that I was going to die eventually. I'm just glad I got to see you grow up into such a fine young man. Your mother would be proud of you." Darren said as he pulled his son into a hug. Releasing him but keeping a hand on his shoulder, he looked back at his son. "I want you go with Jack. He's an old friend and I trust him more than anyone. He'll watch your back and you'll watch his. Am I clear?"

"Yessir." James answered sternly.

"Good." Darren said, releasing the young man's shoulder. Reaching over Darren grabbed his pulse rifle and handed it to his son. "Take it. It'll do you more good than it will me. I trust you grabbed all the ammo and supplies from downstairs." James nodded, not trusting his voice at the moment. "Attaboy. Now go on, you two. Talon probably has a second team inbound since they lost contact with the first."

"Everything that is good in me began in you, father." James said, giving his dad one last hug, his voice cracking slightly. His father just chuckled and returned the hug. As he released his son, James and 76 made their way out, Darren called out to them one last time.

"Jack, that's my son you got there, me and Emma's pride and joy. Keep him safe." 76 nodded in response. It wasn't the first time he had lost someone close to him but this one made him feel guiltier than normal as he felt he might have been able to stop it if he was faster or tried to stop the truck before he got there. "James, I'm proud of you and so would your mother. You've turned into a fine young man but you'll always be my boy. I love you, son."

"I love you too, dad." James said. He felt a gloved hand on his shoulder looked back to face Soldier: 76. The two walked out of the room, James putting his visor and mask back onto his face and pulled his hood back over his head to cover his watering eyes. He told himself he won't cry, that he would be strong but it didn't work. The two walked outside and out into the wildness, James stopping to take one last look at the house. As he looked back, he felt 76 pat him on the shoulder and point toward road. Coming down the road were two trucks. The two soldiers quickly ran deeper into the woods to avoid being seen. After a few minutes of running, a huge explosion ripped through the silence of the wood. Neither looked back. They just kept moving. After awhile, the two stopped running so they could catch their breath. Resting for a minutes, 76 looked back at the younger soldier. He was quiet. Had been since they left the house which made sense considering the events that just passed. He knew from his time spent with Dr. Ziegler that he would have to talk to the younger man about the death of his father sooner or later but he was never good at this kind of thing. Sure, he could inspire hope in people who practically hopeless and turn a group of very different people with very different abilities into a force to be reckoned with but he always left this kind of thing to the professionals. Still, he had to see where his new partner's mindset was at before he could start planning anything. With a sigh, he approached James who was kneeling behind a tree with his fingers on the side of his visor. He surveying the area with the zoom feature added into his visors.

"How's it looking?" 76 asked him, standing behind the tree next to him.

"No sign of Talon or any traps. None of the wildlife is spooked either. I'd say we're all clear for now." James replied taking his fingers off the zoom button which snapped the zoom back down to zero. Looking back at the former Overwatch commander, he knew that he wasn't there to ask him of the situation. "I'm fine, sir. You have nothing to worry about. I knew I was going to lose him one way or another. Dad knew it too and he tried his best to prepare me for it. It's just hard losing the only family you have left." 76 knew that feeling all too well. Overwatch was his family after his parents passed. He watch as Overwatch was torn apart from the inside and did his best to keep them all together but in the end, fail. Overwatch collapsed and it's agents scattered across the globe. That's why he was doing what he was doing now. To find the people who had gotten Overwatch shut down.

"Your father was a good man." 76 said placing a hand on his shoulder to comfort him to the best of his abilities. "Has he told you about me?"

"Not much. He only ever said that you two were old friends from his Overwatch day. He also said mom trusted you. Why?" Soldier: 76 sighed. When Darren makes a promise, he always keeps it.

"I know exactly how you feel about losing the only family you have left. When we get back, I'll tell everything. You might as well know if we're going to be working together for now on." James nodded and the two set off.

By the time they arrived back at 76's hideout, it was already morning. Once getting settled, 76 called over James and when he settled in a seat, 76 began the tale of Jack Morrison, the man he use to be. He told him of his role in end of the Omnic Crisis with the original Overwatch strike team. Of how he was promoted to Strike Commander and the beginning of the rift between him and Gabriel Reyes. Of the way he tried to hold everything together as Overwatch became victim to false allegations and bad media. The conflict that broke out in the Overwatch Headquarters between the two former friends and the explosion that resulted in the death of both. Then began the story of Soldier: 76, the vigilante who will stop at nothing to bring the people who brought Overwatch down to justice. He told him of his work against the gangs and terrorist as well as how he came into the possession of his current by infiltrating old Overwatch outposts. By the time he had finished, James was amazed how one many can cause so much damage to not only know hostile factions but also security teams. He remembered bringing up the reports of Soldier: 76's exploits with his father during one of their talks and his father just laughing, saying not to believe everything they say on TV and that 76 was one of the good guys. After he finished, 76 gave the young man time to think over the information. When James looked at back at him after a minute of thinking, he could tell that the James had made a connection.

"You're him, aren't you? You're Jack Morrison." James said quietly. 76 just gave a small smile from behind his mask and reach his up to remove it. While he had a gained a couple of wrinkles and a few scars, it was still him underneath it all, Overwatch's golden boy.

"You're definitely Darren's son. You're father was one of the first ones to figure it out and got in contact with me. He's the one who's been feeding me all of my information as well as throwing authorities off my trial for the past couple of years." James chuckled at this.

"Loyalty until the end." James said with a sad chuckle. "He always spoke so highly of you whenever I visited, how you turned Overwatch from a crew of oddballs into a fighting force. That you were the reason that Overwatch was a successful as it was." Morrison smile at the memories but he knew that's all they were now. Memories. Overwatch was gone and to the world, he was dead. A beep from the tactical pad on James's wrist drew both their attention. It was a news update talking about the explosion at James's parent's house. Looking through it, James saw that he and his father were both listed as dead in the explosion. How the news knew that he and his father were at the site of the explosion bothered him but he chalked it up to Talon using whatever contacts they have in the media to spread the news of the death of another Overwatch agent. The news traveled to quick to be anything else. What concerned him the most was the fact that they knew that he and his father were related. It was information that only a handful of people knew. "Well, sir, you're not the only one who's a ghost now. News update just popped up talking about the death of me and my father. My guess is Talon tipped them off to spread the news of another Overwatch agent death. Don't know how they knew about me though."

"Agreed but your death was unconfirmed. Better come up with a cover in case Talon is keeping an ear and eye out for you." James nodded and thought for a moment for a new name to go by.

"Well, sir, I'd say for someone who is 'officially' dead, Ghost sounds like a suitable codename." 76 just nodded in agreement. He never really thought of a nickname for himself when he donned his mask and became Soldier: 76. The name was created by the media from the 76 on the back of his jacket and the way he operated and it just stuck. "So what's our next move?" James asked placing his mask on his face, itching for something to do and get some pay back for his father. Jack smile at the young man's determination as he placed he own mask on.

"We make Talon pay for taking one of our own." Jack said as he held up the flash drive Darren had given him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _Indiana, United States, Six years since the collapse of Overwatch_

76 and Ghost had been working together now for almost a year now. 76 was now 48 years old while Ghost had recently become 28. Traveling back to 76's main hideout near his hometown in rural Indiana, the pair had recently taken down a Talon supply warehouse in the area. Ever since the pair had teamed up, the two have been systematically wiping out gangs and other groups of interest. Talon had lost a large amount of resources and assets trying to take the duo down. While there have been a couple of close calls, they were always able to get out of the situations intact. As they entered the small cabin, they sat down and uploaded the data they had stolen from the Talon. It was simple things for the most part, inventory manifests of the warehouse and reports. The one thing that caught their eye was a shipping manifest. It had on it the location the shipment was sent from which meant that they had another warehouse to raid soon. For now, they wanted to rest. The two were unpacking their gear and supplies when beeps caught both of their attentions. For 76, the notification appeared on his visor while for Ghost, who had already removed his tactical visor and mask, the notification appeared on his wrist mounted tactical pad. The contents of the notification surprised both of them. It was the Overwatch Recall Beacon asking former Overwatch agents to take up arms once more and return to active duty. Ghost had no past with the organization and only received the signal due the armor and the equipment previously belonging to his father and it was patched into Overwatch's network but he knew that 76 had an extensive history with them. Looking at the older soldier, he could see 76 considering the pros and cons of the answering the call. The pros were working with people he had previously worked with and trusted but con was they had no idea who he was. All they knew was that he was vigilante that had raided multiple Overwatch facilities, wounded the security teams, and stole some prototype weapons and equipment. Would they even accept him if he went back? How will they react if when saw him again or if they found out who he really was?

"Sir?" Ghost asked, pulling 76 from his thoughts. "What do we do, sir? I have no history with them so I'll follow your lead. If you want to go back, I'll be right behind you, sir." 76 thought it over once more for a few more moments.

"Ignore it for now. We'll go back eventually but for there are still gangs and small scale terrorist groups that need to be dealt with and we can't do that if we're playing by Overwatch's rules." 76 decided. Ghost just nodded and closed the notification before walking off to his room. 76 stared at the message for a little bit longer before doing the same. There will come a time where he'll rejoin his former comrades but for now, he need some sleep.

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. Thanks a lot for reading my first attempt at a Overwatch story. Man, I have an issue. The word 'Ghost' is constantly popping up in my stories. I really need to find a better word or just stop using it. Also I'm starting up another story. Why I do this to myself, I have no idea but hey it's for all of your entertainment so who cares. I enjoy writing for you guys.**

 **Anyways not much else to say. I'd love to hear what you guys think. Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Comment/Review or send me a PM if that's more your style.**

 **Anyways thanks again and have a great day.**

 _ **Edit: This is just a quick fix of a few things that I got wrong when I first started this story that didn't match up with the lore of Overwatch. Namely, the time since Overwatch was shut down to the age of Soldier: 76 as well as some edits to better fit with things later on in the story.**_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**

 **Hey everybody. Just wanted to thank everyone who has read the first chapter. I wasn't really sure how you guys were going to react to it so seeing a positive outcome was one of the most amazing things.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch is property of Blizzard Entertainment. All I own are a few characters and the plot of this story.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Watchpoint Gibraltar, a few days after the Recall Beacon is activated_

As the vigilantes gathered intel and planned their next raid on the Talon warehouse, the "leadership" and a few agents of the newly reformed Overwatch regrouped at the Winston's Lab in Watchpoint Gibraltar. Fortunately, Tracer had kept one of the old dropships and was able to pick up everyone to bring them to the watchpoint. Now gathered at the lab was Winston, Tracer, Mercy, Genji, McCree, and Reinhardt. While multiple other agents all checked in, they either asked to stay in their respective areas to keep an eye on the situation there or were already assigned a mission. The group talked among themselves and caught up with one another as Winston pulled up all the information he wanted to show them.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why I called you all here." Winston finally said, turning around to face everyone there. "A few days ago, I was attacked by Talon. They were lead by a masked man who tried to hack into the Overwatch database and steal all agent information. Luckily, I was able to stop him and Athena was able to quarantine the virus before we lost any of the information. After that I activated the Recall Beacon. I believe that this is the man who's been hunting down former Overwatch agents and executing them. We need to stop him, even more so if he's working with Talon." Winston handed each of them data pad. On it was security footage of the attack. As they watch through the fight, Genji noticed the smoke form the mask man took to escape the base. Taking a glance at Mercy, he noticed that she took note of it as well. As the group finished watching the video, the group sat in silence as they thought about they saw. However, before any of them could formulate a connection, a beeping from Winston's computer caught all their attention. Looking over, they saw an incoming call from one of the agents out on the field. "Athena, patch us in."

"Affirmative." Athena responded opening the communication line.

"Winston, I got something for you. I've got eyes on the vigilante, Soldier: 76. He's a few miles outside the town limits of New Castle, Indiana, right now, observing a warehouse."

"What makes the warehouse so special?"

"Dunno. From what I'm seeing, its heavily guarded. Military-grade equipment and tight patrols. Could be a paramilitary group or a PMC." the agent reported when he hears the sound of an engine. "Hold up, there's a truck pulling up to the gate. It has some kind of marking on the s- Oh shit. It's Talon." As the truck stops for inspection, two figures emerge from the back of the truck. "I got eyes on two new contacts. One is a male I think, wearing all black, heavily armed and armored, has a mask on that looks like a mix between a bird skull and plague doctor, looks really edgy if you ask me. Second one is a woman that, believe it or not, has blueish skin if I'm seeing this correctly. Purple skintight body suit, some kind of firearm strapped to her back, and some kind of head gear." Tracer and Winston tensed at hearing this. They've both had their own encounters with one of the two. "Looks like Soldier: 76 is moving. Do I follow or do I continue to observe the warehouse?"

"Follow Soldier: 76 but do not, under any circumstance, engage. If we can find out where he's operating from, we can get the drop on him and bring him in. Make sure you record what you can and send it to me. I'll analyze it later for any cracks in the defense so one of our strike teams can take advantage of." Winston commanded.

"Always am, Winston. I'll report back in once I have-wait who ar-" "Hi there."

With that agent went silent after they heard a second voice over the radio.

"Agent, report." Nothing."Come in, agent. Please respond." Still nothing. The connection was disrupted and they had no way of knowing what happened to the agent. Winston hung his head down in sadness, assuming the worse and was about to walk away when he heard the a beep. Looking up, he saw it was a message from the field agent he had lost contact with. Opening it, the message turned out to be the record the agent had taken right before dropping out of contact. "Athena, see if you can raise that agent while I analyze the video." Everyone else had gathered up around to see what had happened. Going through the video at the 2x speed to skim through it, the video finally stopped on the blurry image of a hooded man wearing a mask, tactical visor, and darkened armor right with the butt of a rifle about to impact the screen.

"Connection re-established." Athena reported. As soon as the comm line opened next to the image, they were greeted by the unknown voice from earlier.

"What do I do with him, sir? We can't leave him here for Talon to find but we can't take him with us otherwise Overwatch could find us...Copy that, I'll drop him off somewhere. See you back at home base." There was a sigh from the unknown man over the radio. "Alright, buddy, don't take this personally but I'm dump you into the nearest dumpster I find for your own protection." With that the connection was lost once again.

"Connection lost, Winston. I can't seem to re-establish it."

"Its alright, Athena. At least we know he alive and the unknown person isn't with Talon. Can you run voice recognition on him?"

"Affirmative...results are negative. His voice is distorted from the mask. I ran the mask through the database and the mask has a voice altering function. I was able to clean up the image a little bit and am running it through the database to see if we have any matches." The image on screen became less blurry and they could make out the man better now. They all took a closer look at the image, trying to see if they recognized it until it finally clicked to Mercy.

"Isn't that Wraith's old armor?" Everyone looked at her, unsure who Wraith was. "Athena, please bring up agent Darren Drake." A new screen with the Darren's agent profile opened up next to image from the video. Comparing the images of Darren in his armor with the image of the armor man, they found that the armor were near identical, with the exception of some wear and tear and some modifications. "Darren was an old friend of John. They were in the Enhanced Soldier Program but wasn't part of the original Overwatch Strike team. I remember talking to him every so often when I would check up on the Commander." Angela smiled fondly at the memories. Everyone knew that she was close to the Commander back when Overwatch was still operational but she didn't think anyone realized how close the two were. Untold to her, everyone was well aware of the relationship between the doctor and the Commander. If she wasn't in her lab treating injuries or out on the field, she was normally with Morrison. Apparently, there was even a joke between the agents that her and Jack were like the mom and dad of Overwatch she had heard from Genji. She was happier then, had so much more life in her. However, the smile quickly faded away as she remember that Jack had died five years ago in the explosion that destroyed the Swiss Headquarters, yet she had some hope that he could still possibly be out there because no body was ever recovered. She felt a hand on her shoulder that brought her out of memories. Turning, she saw Tracer next to her with a smile on her face. "Sorry, I was thinking of the past." Angela said with a smile to cover up her sadness. "As I was saying, that armor is Wraith's but he and his son died last year in an explosion."

"Are you sure, doc, because this isn't the first time someone who's suppose to be dead has come back." McCree chimed in, leaning back against the desk.

"If you're implying that I have to do something with this then you are mistaken. The last person I brought...back...was...oh no."

"Something you want to share, doctor?"

"The masked man. I think I know who that is." Mercy said with a sigh. "After the explosion at the Overwatch HQ, recovery teams brought the broken, basically lifeless body of Gabriel Reyes. I brought him back to life, like I did with Genji, except there were complications. His cells decay and regenerate at an accelerated rate and like Genji, he can use that smoke-like form to move around."

"You brought Reyes back from the dead?" Winston asked.

"What would you have had me to do? He was my patient. I couldn't let him die. Everything happened so fast. So many injured, so many dead and when Overwatch was shutdown, he went missing, like so many of my patients because they were transferred to different medical facilities across the world. I had no say in the matter and I had no idea he would turn out this way."

"I had a feeling it was Reyes. There's one man I know in the world that uses shotguns like those and carelessly tosses them away like that." McCree said with a sigh. "So now we need to stop him. Fitting it be us."

"Alright. Let's gather up our equipment. Tracer, if you would prep the dropship. We'll should be at New Castle in 12 to 13 hours if we fly directly there." Winston said. Everyone nodded in agreement and started to walk off the grab their gear. As Reinhardt was walking out, he placed a hand on Winston's shoulder, knowing the idealistic gorilla was trying his best for the position his first time being placed into the leadership role..

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _Indiana, United States, the next day_

Soldier: 76 was staking out the warehouse waiting for the signal to strike. From what they saw observed yesterday, the two known as Windowmaker and Reaper, according to Darren's data, had arrived at the base and to their knowledge, haven't left yet. 76 had seen their work. Reaper left his victims as pale husks, drained of life, their cells showing degradation while Widowmaker worked like any sniper, leaving her victims with a single hole in them.

At this point, Ghost was able to sneak past the guards and patrols using the damaged stealth technology in his father's old armor. While it wasn't fully repaired, Ghost was able to repair it so he could cloak for a few minutes before he had to uncloak and let device cool down for a few minutes. However, according to Ghost, once it was fully repaired he could cloak indefinitely.

"Alright, I'm in. Moving to set charges." Ghost said as he moved through the maze of crates and supplies. "Are you sure we can't pick up a few things while we're here?" While 76 never showed it, he was glad that James was opening up. When the two had started working together a little less than a year ago, he was quiet, just like he was the night his father died. He only ever spoke to when reporting something on a mission or to thank him for something. Any kind of conversation besides that was rare but after the first month, James started opening up more and more until he was at the point he was at now where he would openly joke with former commander. To both his and James's surprise, 76 started opening up more as well, nowhere near his old personality and he was still grouchy about how old he felt but he would find himself joking with the younger man every so often and thinking and talking about the good times back in his Overwatch days.

"If its not in a box and its on the way to the objective then feel free to grab it otherwise focus on the objective." 76 said. He waited a moment before spotting the gap in the patrols that James created earlier by knocking over some things. Quickly moving, 76 sprinted toward the warehouse and climbed onto some crates and pulled himself onto the ledge and crept into one of the windows. On the other side of the window was a small platform where a sniper resided. Sneaking up behind the sniper, he wrapped his arm around the man's throat and choked him. As the sniper struggled for air, he dropped his rifle but 76 was able to save it looping his arm into the sling and catching it before it hit the ground. Passing out due to lack of oxygen, 76 put the sniper and his weapon on the ground quietly and stayed crouched. "Sniper down."

"Copy that. Last charge is set." Ghost said. He looked around and looked up toward the catwalk and saw Reaper and Widowmaker walking above. "Sir, I got eyes on Reaper and Widowmaker. Catwalk, heading north." 76 looked over and saw them walking down the catwalk, heading toward an office.

"I see them."

"How do you want to handle this?"

"Stalk them for now and see can gather but don't get too close."

"Got it, re-cloaking." Ghost slowly moved under through the crates, stopping for a moment to grab some supplies left outside of a crate and stored them in one of his pouches. Climbing up one of the support beam of the catwalk, he quietly climbed over the railing and followed soundlessly, keeping a good distance between them. "What do I do when they enter the office?"

"Do you have any charges left?"

"Yeah, one. Why?"

"Set a bug then place the charge on the central support of the office. Once we get information we need, blow the charges and we're out of here." Ghost moved to complete what he was told. Setting the bug underneath the door, he climbed back down the side and set the charge beneath the he was sneaking away, he looked back and saw Windowmaker standing at the window with her sniper rifle drawn. Halting, he looked back at the sniper.

"Heads up, Widowmaker is at the window." Ghost said. As he said that, Widowmaker's helmet closed over her eyes and her gaze stopped on Ghost. "Do you think she can see me?" He got his response when he shifted his head slightly and sniper round zoomed past his ear, right here his head use to be. "She can see me." Ghost stated calmly. Ducking under the next shot, Ghost uncloaked and the ran around a corner behind some crates which caught a bullet for him. 76 shouldered his pulse rifle and stood up to take aim at the window where Widowmaker was firing from. Firing his Helix rockets, Windowmaker noticed the rockets too late to shoot them down and tried jumping out of the way as the rockets impacted, sending her off into the wall. Reaper had already turned into his smoke form and quickly gave chase to the now uncloak individual running and gunning his way through the maze of crates. The gunfire caught the attention of the Talon troops outside the warehouse and they stormed over began storming into the warehouse. "Sir, what's the plan?"

76 grabbed the sniper rifle on floor and some ammo and climbed out the window, laying prone on the roof and opening fire at the incoming Talon troops. "Get out of there. There's too many of them for us to take in straight firefight." 76 ordered. _'Dammit, this isn't going according to plan.'_

"Yessir, moving to the ex-shit! Scratch that. Reaper engaged me. I'll gotta lose him first before I can get away." Ghost said before diving behind a box to dodge another shotgun blast. Unloading his pulse rifle at the masked man and started reloading while running, not checking to see if any of his shots connected. As he made his way around the corner, he came across a Talon squad. The squad was surprise to see him and were too slow to react as Ghost's pulse rounds tore through them. He felt the floor rock and heard an explosion from outside followed by gunfire and screams. "Sir, what's going on out there?!" Ghost asked while running, firing a burst into another Talon soldier's chest without slowing.

"We got company."

"Tell me something I don't know." Ghost bashed the rifle butt into a Talon soldier before grabbing him and using him as a meat shield to soak up some shots from Reaper's Hellfire Shotguns while he fired back, causing the masked man in black to go for cover.

"Overwatch just arrived and are engaging Talon troops outside the warehouse. We need get out of here." 76 said as he dropped another Talon soldier. Ghost cursed under his breath as he pulled the pin on one of the grenades on the dead man's chest and kicked the dying man toward Reaper. "Get a move on, soldier."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm leaving." Ghost said running around a corner as the explosion went off. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the main entrance of the warehouse. As he ran closer to the entrance, he realized that the fighting had moved indoors, cutting him off from the using that exit. Cut off and with clock ticking, he knew that there was no way to get out without revealing himself to everyone or being caught in the explosion. "Fuck." Ghost curse as he leaned a against a crate and banged his head against it when thinking about his misfortune at the moment. As if to mock, the cracks of a sniper rifle caught his attention, notifying him that Widowmaker was back in the fight, meaning he couldn't cloak to escape either.

"What's the problem?"

"I'm cut off. Fighting has moved indoors and Widow is back up. Got any ideas?" Hearing Reaper's shotguns coming from from where the Overwatch agents were gave him some relief as it meant he wouldn't have to deal with Reaper at the moment. Reaching into one of his pouches to grab a new energy cell for his pulse rifle, he realized he had none left, only ones for his sidearm. "Oh you have got to be kidding me. I'm almost out of ammo for my rifle and I'm on my last cell now. After that, I'm down to my sidearm." Ghost informed 76.

"Hold position. I'll come to you."

"But sir!"

"No buts. I'm don't leave people behind. Where are you?" 76 got the sound of gunfire as a response before Ghost's marker came into view on the side of the warehouse. "Marker received. Moving to your position." 76 got up and abandoned the sniper rifle and position he was using and jumped back through the window. Jumping over the railing, 76 dropped down onto the catwalk below and ran along it the other side of the warehouse, firing at any Talon soldiers in his way. As he moved, a sniper bullet tore through the air just behind his head, notifying him that Widowmaker had him in her sights and the next shot won't miss. Jumping down to the ground floor, 76 rolled behind a crate and took cover. Looking next to him, he realized he was sitting next to McCree, who had also taken cover behind the same crate. The two looked at each other for a moment. "Hey."

"Howdy." A barrage of bullets pinged off the side of the crate closest to McCree, causing McCree to back away from the edge just a bit while high caliber sniper round pounded the side closest to 76. "Looks like we're both in a jam. Hope you don't mind me sharing this here cover with you. I'm going to assume that since you didn't shoot me on sight, you don't want me dead quite yet." 76 just grunted in response. Loading another Helix rocket, he moved over toward McCree's side and peeked around, seeing five Talon soldiers behind cover.

"Get ready to move." 76 said as he cocked the underbarrel attachment. Diving out, 76 fired the Helix rockets a the center of the group. The Talon soldiers tried to get away but the explosion knocked three of them off their feet while two were killed in explosion. The three that weren't taken out in the explosion were taken out by McCree. 76 was about to get ready to keep moving when he heard the click of the hammer on McCree's Peacekeeper being cocked.

"I'm sorry I have to do this to you, stranger, but I'm going have to ask you to lay down your weapons and come with me." Lucky, Widowmaker fired a shot that barely missed McCree, causing the cowboy to swear and fire his revolver off at the sniper. 76 took the opportunity to keep running. Almost at Ghost's location, he heard the the load screech of metal being tore and a loud bang. Pushing his legs even harder, he found Ghost taking cover behind a shot up box with his sidearm drawn and his pulse rifle strapped to his back. Looking over at what Ghost was looking at, 76 saw the source of the sound from earlier. The sound was Reinhardt charging completely through one of the shipping containers and slamming into another. 76 caught sight of some of the smoke escaping over the damage crate. In the large hole in the side of the shipping container was Mercy. When 76 saw her, he froze for a moment before he was able to start moving again. Turning to see Ghost next him, 76 nodded and Ghost began running the way 76 had come from. 76 risked one last look at the doctor and saw a lone Talon soldier stand up from behind her and try lining up a shot. Pressing the side of his visor and leveling his pulse rifle, 76 fired off a shot that went right over Mercy's shoulder and impact the man Talon soldier in the head. Mercy turned around and saw the man behind her fall over as Reinhardt activated his shield and faced it toward the 76. Mercy quickly looked back at 76, who gave her a small salute and before running.

"Are you alright, Dr. Ziegler?" Reinhardt shouted, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Yes, I'm fine. You have nothing to worry about. I don't believe he was trying to hurt me. In fact, I believe he actually saved my life." Mercy said.

"Well then how about we go after him and give him our thanks." The larger man bellowed and ran down the path 76 had gone down. As Reinhardt ran down the path, his armor and hammer would occasionally scrap against the containers and crates. Before they got far, explosives across the warehouse went off, fire quickly spreading and munitions stored there going off in chain reaction. Winston's voice sounded in their ears shortly afterwards.

"Everyone, get out of here. The structural integrity of the building has dropped below safe levels. The building is starting to collapse. Regroup at the dropship." Reinhardt looked back at Mercy and nodded. Using his charge, Reinhardt smashed through some of the crates and containers, clearing a path for them. As Reinhardt continued forward with Mercy flying behind him, an explosion from a damaged munitions crate went off and knocked Mercy into a shipping container, causing here to black out..

76 and Ghost were almost out of the building. The state of the building was bad and only getting worse. In terms of their plan, this is exactly what was suppose to happen; the explosions setting off a chain reaction by setting off the ammo, destroying the equipment and supplies. The only part of the plan that wasn't suppose to happen was them or Overwatch being in the building when the explosives went off. Lucky for them, their masks filtered out the smoke that was quickly rising and allowed them to get to higher ground and get out that way. Hearing the sound of metal scrapping against metal, he turned to see Reinhardt smashing his way through shipping containers and crates with Mercy following close behind. He then watch in horror as the an explosion sent Mercy off into a shipping container and knocker out for a moment, Reinhardt not hearing her due to the sound of his Crusader armor's engine and the explosions from all around.

"Angela!" 76 shouted. Ghost turned around and saw 76 stop. Looking in the direction he was looked, Ghost zoomed in with his visor and saw the medic slowly trying to get up and get her bearings after being disoriented in the blast and the smoke now starting to fill her lungs.

"She's alive but she looks disoriented. If she doesn't get out of here soon, smoke inhalation will kill her if the fire or the collapsing building don't first." As if on cue, part of the rafters collapse off and take out part of the catwalk on the other side of the building. "What do we do, sir?"

"You keep moving. I'm going back for her." 76 said quickly finding a way over to Mercy by using the top of the containers. "No buts. That's an order, soldier. I made a promise and I intent on keeping it. Get moving." he said cutting off Ghost before he could object.

"Fine but make it quick. I don't want to lose anyone else. I'll see you on the other side, commander. Good luck." Ghost said turning around and started running. 76 didn't watch him go as he vaulted over the railing and the ran toward the doctor.

On the side, Mercy was having a hard time trying to navigate her way out. She was coughing and the smoke stung her eyes. She would fly out but her wings were damaged in the explosion and the smoke was quickly rising. Her leg was also injured causing her to walk with a limp until the nanites in her body could repair the damage, forcing her to lean on her staff a bit. The intensity of the flames were only making things worse as it forced the nanites in her body to spread themselves to combat multiple injuries at once instead of focusing on one injury. Thinking that her luck couldn't get any worse, as she was trying to follow the path made before by Reinhardt, part of the rafter collapsed in the path, forcing her to find a new path. Hearing a pang from above, she looked up to see part of the rafters falling toward her. Knowing she couldn't out from under it in time, she was about to accept her fate when she heard something.

"Angela!" 76 jumped out of the smoke and flames surrounding her and tackled Mercy out of the way, covering her with himself to make sure nothing hit her. After everything hit the ground, 76 released her from his grip and looked over the smaller woman. Seeing no injuries, he helped her up and looked for the best possible route out. Hearing her cough, 76 looked back at Dr. Ziegler. He knew the smoke was taking its toll on her. He knew what he had to do, even if it blew his cover but it didn't matter to him right now. All that matter was saving her life. Bring his hand up to his face, he removed his mask, Mercy watching him the entire time. When the mask came off, she gasped and her words were caught in her throat except one.

"Jack." she whispered. She reached up and touched the scar that went down the center of his face. 76 just smile. After all these years, he still had the same smile, even with the scars. 76 put the mask over her face.

"Hold this over your face. It's filtered so it'll keep the smoke out." 76 said. His voice wasn't as deep as it was in the mask nor was it as rough. She took the mask and held it up to her face as he picked her up and carried her.

"What about you?" she asked as she remember the situation they were in. The voicing changing feature made her voice sound deeper and rough then what it usually was, causing 76 to smile out of amusement, something he doesn't do all to often anymore.

"I'll be fine. We'll be out of here before anything the smoke can take its toll on me." he said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. He knew the risks of what he was doing. Mercy just hummed response, relaxing into him, glad he was back. With that, he walked toward wall nearest wall. He wasn't sure how long he was walking for but when he got to the wall, he had multiple burns and was just about ready to collapse. His jacket made the heat unbearable, his eyes and lungs burned but he knew he couldn't stop. Seeing wall damaged, 76 got down on a knee and reached around his back and grabbed his heavy pulse rifle. Aiming it at the damaged wall, he fired his Helix rockets at it, blowing the wall open. Let the rifle hang by its sling, he carried Mercy outside and far enough from the burning building, his first full breath of fresh air causing him to cough. When he looked down at the doctor, he noticed she was a sleep. How she manage to sleep through that was beyond him. As he felt himself about to collapse, he felt someone help keep him steady. Looking at the person, he saw Ghost there helping him.

"I got you, sir. I'm glad you two made it out. Do you want me to notify Overwatch of this position so they can pick up Dr. Ziegler or do you want to bring her along?"

"No." He said before coughing. "Tell Overwatch. We'll watch from a distance and watch over her until they get here."

"Yessir. You get a move on. I'll cloak and grab your mask and make my way toward you once I have it." 76 just nodded and walked over to a safe distance and set down his biotic field generator to start treating the injuries he sustained. Ghost notified Overwatch via Mercy's transponder and gently removed the mask from Mercy's grasp and quickly stored it. Once the mask was off, Mercy awoke with a cough. Realizing that she was outside, Mercy sat up.

"Jack?" she asked. She looked around but saw no one. _'Did I imagine the whole thing with Jack?'_ Trying to think back to it, she couldn't remember anything clearly after the explosion. _'I must miss him more than I thought.'_ she thought to herself with a sad smile, yet underneath that she had renewed hope that he was still alive. The sound of engines caught her attention as he looked up and saw the Overwatch dropship descend. As the ramp lowered, Tracer was the first one out of ship to hug Mercy and tell her how worried she was followed by Reinhardt apologizing for not realizing she was gone sooner and swearing by his honor that it would never happen again, the rest of the team following those two. At the treeline, Soldier: 76 leaned against a tree watching the whole thing and watched as they all boarded the dropship and took off. Its been awhile since he stood in the open without his mask. He spends so often breathing in the air through filters that he had almost forgotten all the scents the wind carried.

"I'd say today was rather successful, you know besides the whole almost dying thing and almost causing the death of an Overwatch agent?" Ghost said reappearing next to him with his mask in hand. 76 just took the mask and stared at it the front of it, debating if he wanted to put it back on. "I'll let move on ahead and get the vehicles prep." Ghost said, seeing the older soldier thinking.

76 just grunted a response and went back to thinking. Eventually his cover will be blown and the whole world will know that the ex-Strike Commander of Overwatch was now a vigilante and mercenary. All those he once called friend will look at him in disgust because of how far he's fallen. He's personality has changed so much since his days as the leader of Overwatch. Almost dying and basically dragging his beaten and bloody body away from the site to escape had done that to him. Ghost was the only one who would probably stick by him, if not for him then to honor his father's dying wish. Then he remember what his purpose was when he donned his mask. The promise he made to find the people who brought down Overwatch and bring them to justice. With sigh, the former Striker Commander put back on his mask and walked off without a word.

 **A/N**

 **That's a wrap. Thanks you so much for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I'm pretty sure some, if not most of you can tell where this story is going in several respects as well as what I'm implying so I'll do my best to keep you on your toes and try adding in a twist or two. I'm going to be honest, I'm having a lot of fun writing this.**

 **So tell me what you guys think about this chapter. Love it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Leave a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more your style.**

 **Thanks again and have a great day.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**

 **Hey everybody. I just wanted to say thank you guys so much for such a positive response to this story. I honestly had no idea how you guys were going to react to and to see so many people enjoying is amazing to say the least. I'll do my best to keep the story up to your expectations. Thank you guys so much. It means so much to me as writer.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developers. I only own a few characters and the plot of the story.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Indiana, United States, a few days after the raid on Talon warehouse_

Spending the next few days recovering from the battle and laying low as they had drawn too much attention to themselves from not only Talon but from Overwatch as well, Ghost and Soldier: 76 sat in Soldier: 76's hideout and the watched the news of Overwatch vigilante activity in the Overwatch museum as Winston and Tracer battled it out with Reaper and Widowmaker over the doomfist gauntlet. However, the news afterward concerned the two vigilantes more.

"In other news, Helix Security International continues to work closely with world governments to crackdown on black market and illegal weapons trades across the globe. As of right now, multiple gun runners and ammunition sellers have been brought to justice, the latest one being a former Overwatch supplier named Gordon Bull." the news report announce. Both 76 and Ghost swore at this as Gordon had been their last supplier who had been supplying them with pulse munitions, weapon parts, and repair kits. Over the past months, they had lost multiple contacts and suppliers, mainly former Overwatch agents who 76 have helped in the past, to the crackdown. Many had gone into hiding due to the crackdown while others were busted by Helix Security International.

"Well...shit." Ghost said running a hand through his hair. "What do we do now? He was our last supplier and he was organizing our next supply drop. We burned through a lot of ammo on the raid and we're starting to run low on supplies." 76 knew James was voicing what both of them thought. Due their work as vigilantes taking out gangs and terrorist groups, they're more likely to be shot at on sight by the vendors, if not the customers, at black market sales than welcomed. Because of the same reason, they couldn't acquire supplies and munitions through legal means as they would be arrest on sight by the authorities. There was a third option on acquiring supplies that he had been toying around with in his mind for awhile.

"I have an idea on how we can get supplies." 76 said. "There's a chance that old Overwatch bases still have their supplies in them."

"I thought all the old Overwatch bases were handed over to Helix after Overwatch was shutdown."

"Most were but there was so much lost when the Swiss HQ was destroyed. Base locations, names of hostile and anti-Omnic factions, potential recruits for Overwatch. From what I've seen and the intel gathered by your father, there are a handful of bases that Helix security isn't involved in and have been abandoned and I still the access codes for the bases and their armories."

"And hopefully no other former agents have looted the supplies before we have. Alright, that's definitely start. Any base you have in mind?" Ghost asked.

"Watchpoint Gibraltar, located in the Rock of Gibraltar. The base was an orbital launch site that we used it launch satellites into space. The only people who really knew about the base were the people who were stationed there. Unfortunately, most of the agents that were stationed there have been killed by Reaper and Talon so the base should be deserted and have most of it supplies intact."

"I guess we're going to Europe then." Ghost said standing up. "I'll start packing." 76 just nodded and started thinking of which contacts could get the two of them to Europe without alerting the local authorities or Helix Security.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _Watchpoint Gibraltar_

While 76 and Ghost spent the past couple of days laying low and recovering, the Overwatch members who participated in the attack on the Talon warehouse were quickly back on their feet due to the medical knowledge of Angela Ziegler and her nanotech. Not only that but with the amount of Overwatch agents who answered the recall, Overwatch was able to continue operations even with best agents being out of commission for a day.

Back at Watchpoint Gibraltar, Winston and Athena were working hard trying to locate both Talon facilities and information on the vigilante Soldier: 76, as McCree informed the team that he had been present during the attack but was able to almost entirely avoid the Overwatch team. In truth, Winston has heard and seen much of Soldier: 76 in the news and other medias as well as the conspiracy theories that the man was the former commander of Overwatch but could never find any hard evidence of who the man is, only that the way he moves and operates implies advanced military training. That still left a long list of people he could be, even longer if he were to start including people who had died within the last five to six years.

"Athena, any leads on Talon bases or facilities?" Winston asked rubbing his eye. He had been staring at the screen for far too long and wanted to take a break.

"Negative. However, several agents have request extraction from their locations."

"What's the problem?"

"With the growing death toll of former Overwatch agents, some of the agents no longer feel their locations are secure and have requested extraction or backup. However, a few have confirmed the presence of hostile factions at work in their areas and do not have the necessary supplies or manpower to combat those factions should they discover the agent." Athena reported. Winston snorted and quickly went to work. His break would have to wait.

"Athena, please bring up the locations of all agents that have requested extraction or backup." Winston watch as a holographic globe appeared in front of him. On the globe multiple blue dots appeared around the globe, mainly scattered across Europe and Africa but a few were on the other side of the globe on North America. "Prioritize them by which agents need immediate extraction due to immanent danger." Of the around sixteen dots, seven of them changed colours, four changing to yellow and the three changing to red. Unfortunately and fortunately, all the red dots were in relatively close proximity with each other, all being in anti-Omnic countries or areas, which in turn meant that these places were also anti-Overwatch as Overwatch protected Omnics as well had Omnics in their ranks back in the day.

"Winston, one of the agents has just confirmed that Talon's presence in their AO." A tab formed off of one of the red dots. In the tab was a video of Talon soldiers in an alley yelling at a group of gang members, who were beating down an Omnic, to get lost. As the Omnic tried getting up to thank its saviors, the leading Talon soldiers pulled out his sidearm and blew a hole in the Omnic's head with little though, as if he was shooting a practice dummy. The video cut out after that. Winston snorted in frustration. While Talon is a know terrorist organization, some people are willing to overlook that because of their hatred for the Omnics. With the world on brink of another Omnic Crisis, Talon could be the spark that sets it all off. "Athena, prep the dropship for depart and notify the team to meet up in the hanger."

"Affirmative, team has been notify. McCree has also informed me that he finished the list of all the Blackwatch operatives that side with Reyes when they went rogue. Displaying it now." On the screen, the list of names showed up. The list was longer than what Winston had hoped for but it would explain what McCree said about Talon using Blackwatch tactics and when he mentioned one of the Talon agents recognizing him but he'll worry about that later. For now, they had agents to save.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _Timeskip: 25 hours, Watchpoint Gibraltar_

After a long trip by plane to Spain then a couple hours on the road to cross the border to Gibraltar, Ghost felt it was in their best interest to catch some shut eye as before heading to the base. While both can handle several days without sleep and have proven doing so, Ghost argued it was the better option to sleep off any kind of jet lag or fatigue they might have been feeling during this 'calm before the storm' as Ghost described it. 76 reluctantly agree but figured that moving under the cover of darkness would be helpful if the base's automated defense were still active for some reason. 76 was the first to wake from his nap as the sun was sinking beneath the horizon. Waking up James, 76 and Ghost continued the last leg of the trip to the old Overwatch base. Activating the night vision mode in their visors, the two silently made their way to the entrance of the base with their weapons drawn. Approaching the entrance, 76 quickly uncovered the keypad and type in his authorization code. The door opened with a hiss and the two vigilantes entered.

"Welcome back, Commander." an automated voice echoed throughout the empty base.

"Athena?"

 **A/N**

 **Well that's a wrap for this chapter. I know this was a short chapter and probably doesn't met the par set by the previous two chapters but thanks anyways for reading. I really wanted to use this as an opportunity to set up for the next chapter or chapters. I'm also going to apologize here for the timeskips. Due to the Overwatch universe spanning the globe, most travelling portions will be cut unless something interesting happens during them. Also, I'm mostly going to be skipping the day by day when their not doing anything for the most part, especially with 76 and Ghost since it just them gathering information or staking out a target. So unless you guys want that type of thing, I will not be including them.**

 **Anyways so what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Leave a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more your style.**

 **Thanks again and have a great day.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N**

 **Hello everybody. Thanks for reading this story. Not a long Author's Note. this time around. On to the disclaimer.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developers. All I own is a few characters and the plot of this story.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Watchpoint Gibraltar_

As 76 and Ghost stood shocked at the entrance of the base, they were soon blinded as the lights all turned on. Shutting off the night vision and letting their eyes adjust, the two looked around and saw the complete opposite of what they expected. Instead of the base being run down and overgrown like the outside suggested, the interior was well kept and clean.

"I don't think this base is abandoned, sir." Ghost said readying his pulse pistol. Unlike 76, he had opted to leave his rifle back at the hideout, saying it was much each easier to conceal only the pistol as well as move around quicker without the rifle and wasn't expecting much trouble. Now he was starting to regret that decision.

"You are correct, Agent...I don't believe we've met before. You're IFF tag indicates that you are Darren Drake yet the bio scan indicates otherwise." Athena announced as the two stood on high alert. "Scans show that your DNA is similar to that of Agent Drake meaning..."

"Agent Drake was my father." Ghost said. "And you said this base isn't abandoned. What did you mean by that? I'm not seeing or hearing anyone else. No security teams trying to stop us, no Overwatch members going about their business, not even automated security."

"Affirmative. Watchpoint Gibraltar has been home to Winston, who kept me maintained and active still the collapse of Overwatch and is now the HQ of the newly reformed Overwatch. Currently, six Overwatch agents inhabit the base but all are currently on a mission to rescue Overwatch agents from high risk areas or extract agents that have requested it. Once scans showed it was the commander, automated security stood down. Commander Morrison, shall I reactivate you as an Overwatch agent and re-instate your command status over Overwatch."

"Negative." 76 said before grumbling under his breath, "What's the point of bringing Overwatch back? Would have been better to let this all go." Unknown to him, Ghost heard what he said.

"I don't know, sir. I guess someone believed the state of the world was in such bad shape that they needed heroes again to help save the day." 76 glanced at his companion and thought about what Ghost had said. While he personally didn't believe Overwatch's revival was the best course, he knew with a Second Omnic Crisis about to erupt, the world could use heroes once again.

 _'But I'm not a hero anymore. That part of me died with Jack Morrison."_ 76 thought to himself. The two continued their way to the armory in silence. As they walked through the corridors of the base, 76 noticed Ghost glancing at him every so often. "Is something the matter?"

"Just wondering, sir. You say that there's no need for the Overwatch anymore but when we got the recall, you thought about answering it and said that we'll eventually answer it. Why?" Ghost asked. 76 just sighed.

"A lot of memories in this place. Not all of them were bad. You're right in assuming that the world needs heroes again but after last time, I'm not sure the world is going to accept them again."

"Them? Come on, Jack, you're a hero too." Ghost said.

"Not anymore." After that, the two walked once more in silence. It was unnerving to be walking down the empty hall of the base. Both felt that any moment, someone would just jump out at them from around one of the corners, making them check their corners in every new room they entered and hallway they passed through.

"Commander, there are no other agents in the facility. There's no need exercise caution." Athena announced.

"You mentioned that all the agents are away on a mission earlier. Why? That seems like a bad decision tactically to leave your headquarters undefended."

"This base isn't undefended. The automated defenses of this base are operational, thanks to Winston. The other agents went with Winston due the high danger level in the areas several of the agents are in. Confrontation with hostile factions were likely."

"Still a bad idea in my book." 76 chimed in.

"I will pass the comment on, Commander."

"Delay that. And don't call me that. I'm not the commander anymore."

"Shall I call you by something else then?" 76 took a moment to think about it before answering.

"Call me Soldier: 76 and we were never here."

"Understood. Deleting log of your entry and accompanying surveillance footage." Athena said. "And what about the identification of the son of Agent Drake?" 76 looked at Ghost, who just shrugged. The two stopped walking as they stood in front of the armory doors. Walking up to the keypad next to the door, 76 put in the his access code. As the door opened heavy set of doors opened, a terminal in the security checkpoint near the doors came to life. Ghost walked up to the terminal to see it had an agent registration window open.

"What is it?" 76 said walking over.

"A new agent registration." Ghost said. "What do I do, sir?"

"Up to you. It's clearly meant for you since I'm already registered." Ghost stopped and thought about it for a minute before responding.

"I'm going to fill it out. Should be helpful for when we join forces with Overwatch later on down the road, granted they don't shoot at us first for being vigilantes." Ghost sat down and quickly filled out the required information. 76 grunted in responds and glanced over Ghost's shoulder, seeing the name he entered in, James Hawke.

"Hawke?" 76 questioned.

"Hm? Oh yeah, it's something my parents did when I was born. They knew their line of work would make them a few enemies, more so when dad joined Overwatch. So they agreed that it would be better that I have mom's last name in case someone got their hands on Overwatch agent info since mom never joined Overwatch after the Omnic Crisis. That's why so few people knew my parents married and it was never put into in agent database." Ghost said as he typed, letting out a sad chuckling at the memory and how protective his parents were over him. _'If only you two could see me now.'_ 76 just patted Ghost on the shoulder. He knew Ghost didn't normally talk about his parents and knew he missed both of them greatly, especially his mother. "Head on in and resupply. I'll be done in a few minutes." 76 just nodded and was about to walk through the doors when he stopped.

"Athena."

"Yes, Soldier: 76?"

"Warn us if anyone comes in or if Overwatch comes back."

"As you wish."

"And Athena, reactivate me in the agent database."

"Affirmative." the electronic voice of Athena sounded notably happier at this. "Shall I still use the Soldier: 76 as your name and your current appearance?"

"Affirmative." 76 said before walking into the armory. Unknown to him, Ghost overheard the brief exchange and smiled under his mask.

As 76 walked into the armory, he found it have plenty of ammo, both pulse weapon energy cells and ballistic ammunition. While loading up on the ammo he was lacking, 76 heard footsteps as Ghost entered the armory.

"I'll give them credit, Overwatch is definitely more prepared for combat operations than we are at the moment." Ghost said, letting out a whistle as he enter. "Who do you think is supplying them?" he asked as he started filling up pouches with ammo. 76 just shrugged and picked up some extra ammo. Ghost quickly filling his pouches with ammo and was looking around to see if there was anything he could take without Overwatch noticing. From both him and 76 taking their fill of ammunition and then some, they barely made a dent in the supply they had. Before he could pick out something, Athena's voice sounded throughout the bases intercom.

"Incoming dropship. Awaiting identification codes." Athena announce. Following the announcement, Tracer's voice came over the intercom giving the identification codes. 76 and Ghost cursed under their breath and quickly set everything back into the general area they were in when they walked in. "Confirmed. Welcome back Tracer." 76 and Ghost swore again for how carelessly they wasted time and sprinted out of the armory. 76 stopped by the door and hit a few keys on the keypad to close the armory doors. Sprinting down the halls, they quickly went the way they came from, hoping they could get out and avoid Overwatch in process.

"Athena, double check to make sure all record of our time here is replaced with a continuous loop of an empty base." 76 said while running.

"Affirmative, 76." Athena said just as Tracer was finished talking about the mission.

"76? My designation isn't 76. Are you feeling alright, luv? Do you need me to tell Winston to run a maintenance check on you when we land?" Tracer asked. 76 swore once more.

"Negative. My systems are running at peak optimal conditions." Athena said.

"Alright, well we're beginning our landing now. Tracer signing off." With that, there was a click of the radio channel shutting off. As Ghost and 76 arrived by the outside portion of the base, near the launch pad, they quickly retreated back indoors as the dropship approached the hanger.

"We'll have to take the long way around. Come on, follow me." 76 said running off down a hallway with Ghost following close behind.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As the dropship entered the hanger, one of the agents called out to rest of the agents on board.

"Did anyone else see that?"

"See what?" Winston asked, moving toward the window to look out of it.

"I'm pretty sure I saw movement outside. Like something ran off down one of the hallways."

"That's strange. If there is someone at in the base, the automated security should have taken care of them but we can't be to sure. When we land, I'll run a scan of the base while everyone else do a sweep of the base. This should also give those of you who are unfamiliar with the base a chance to familiarize themselves with it." Winston said turning to the other agents. "We'll split up into three teams of six and one team of four." Everyone nodded in agreement. While all were exhausted from a long day and crossing multiple time zones, they knew that the sooner they got this done, the sooner they get to go to sleep. Feeling the dropship land, they all gathered up their gear and split up into their teams. Reinhardt, Tracer, and Mercy lead one group as they knew the base better while McCree and Genji lead another for the same reason. Winston took a team of three other people to head back to his lab and start the scan. As soon as the dropship doors opened, each team piled out and took off in seperate directions to start their investigation. "Athena, any breaches in security?"

"Negative."

"Tracer did mention you made a mistake when talking to her earlier. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, Winston."

"Alright, well start a bio-scan of the base and let me know the results." Athena went silent for a few moments before responding again.

"Scan complete. Results show 24 human life signs in the base." This surprised and concerned Winston. There were only 22 of them on the dropship.

"Everyone, we have two unknowns in the wondering the base. Keep your eyes open and immediately report if you see anything." Winston notified everyone. "Athena, you said there were breaches in security." Winston asked as he hurried back to his lab.

"There weren't. Both are Overwatch agents. Both IFF and biometric scanner proved it as well them having the proper access codes."

"Did they take anything? Agent locations or data? Operation logs?" Winston entered the garage and quickly climbed up to the second floor and checked his computer.

"Negative. All data, classified and declassified have remained untouched." Just like she said, all data was there. No sign of hacking or even anyone entering this room.

"So what could they want?" Winston asked himself. "Athena, bring up the surveillance footage from today." A window opened with the requested footage. Winston watch each camera angle of every entrance in the base only to find nothing. "How they get in?" Winston grunted in frustration. "Has anyone found anything?"

"Hanger and main entrance is clear. We will stay here and make sure no one can leaves." Reinhardt's voice came over the radio.

"Launch pad and board room clear. No sign of them yet." McCree said.

"Barracks clear. Moving to secure armory." One of the of the Overwatch agents they pick up said, he and his team leaving the room. Unknown to them, Ghost was hiding in that very room.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ghost watched the Overwatch team leave the room from his cloaked position on top of the lockers. Waiting for a minute to make sure they were actually gone, Ghost moved from his position and walked over to the door and peeked out.

"They're gone." Ghost let out a sigh of relief. He and 76 were forced to split up to avoid Overwatch more effectively. They agreed to rendezvous outside to escape but getting there hasn't been the easiest task. Staying put to let his cloaking device cool down, Ghost kept an ear open for the sound of approaching footsteps. For the first couple of minutes, nothing was heard until finally the faint sound of someone running could heard. At first he thought it was 76 but as the running got closer, he realized the footsteps were too light to be him that and there were gaps in the running as if they were running then a split second of nothing then running once again. Cloaking, Ghost backed off to the side of the room and watched once more. Just as he got to the side of the room, a young woman burst into the room with pistols drawn. She had on some kind of metal device over her chest, which intrigued him but at the moment did feel like the it was the appropriate time to ask. He recognized the woman but couldn't remember her name at the moment.

"Come out, come out wherever you are." the woman said in with a British accent. She looked around the room until her eyes fell upon where Ghost was standing. Noticing a shimmer in the air there, she was about the get a closer look when the sound of boots caught her attention. Turning around, she was soon greeted with McCree and Genji walking through the door.

"Howdy there, Tracer"

"Hello, Lena."

"You two spot anything? I can't seem to find anything."

"Nothing." McCree said with a sigh. "Whoever's here is doing a mighty fine job keeping himself hidden." Ghost watched as the two conversed, hoping they'd leave, when he noticed the third stopped walking in front of him, with his back turned to him. The other two seemed to notice this as well and turned their attention to him.

"Something the matter, luv?" Tracer asked. Genji gripped his katana, drawing it slightly.

"We are not alone." he said. At that moment, the sound of gunfire drew all their attention. Ghost took this as his opportunity to make his move. Luckily for him, there were two entrances to the room and he was near one of them. As the three Overwatch agents turned to face the direction the sound came from, Ghost stood up and uncloaked and jumped toward Genji just as his radio crackled to life. Hearing this, Genji turned around just to catch Ghost's fist to the cheek of the helmet. Shoving him into his two friends, Ghost sprinted out of the room and up the stairs, six shots from the McCree's Peacekeeper impacting the wall directly behind him.

"Sorry!" Ghost yelled as he shot up the stairs and muting his radio. Reaching the top, he quickly made his way out of sight of the stairs and re-cloaked just as Tracer shot up the stairs and quickly scanned the area before blinking toward the direction she thought he would have run. Soon enough, McCree and Genji were out of the room and following Tracer. Once they were gone, Ghost let out another breath of relief. Getting ready to move once again, he unmuted his radio and called 76. "Sorry about that, sir. My position was compromised by a green cyborg ninja dude. Can I assume that's you making all that noise on the other side of the base."

"Affirmative. I got spotted by one of their agents when I was changing positions. I got a squad trying to chase me down. I'm heading toward you, be ready."

"Got it. I'll take them out." Ghost said drawing his pistol.

"No. Do not fire at them. We're already on bad terms with them, killing one of their agents will only make it worse."

"Then what the hell do you want me to do, use harsh language?"

"Just be ready." 76 said.

"Fine but I'm jumping in if things start to go south." Ghost huffed in frustration and headed toward where 76 was coming from. As he watch 76 come around the corner, he noticed 76 had basically lost the team chasing him but before he said anything, Reinhardt, who took up the entire doorway, step out from a different doorway followed by Doctor Ziegler and three other agents. Soon enough they joined in the chase and soon enough 76 ran out of room to run. With his back against the wall, 76 put aside his rifle and turned to face the agents chasing him. The three agents part of Reinhardt's team were the first to reach 76 but all of them were out of breath form running so much. Noticing his weapon against the wall, the agents kept their weapons trained on 76 and cautiously approached to apprehend the vigilante. However, once one of the agents tried to zip tie 76's hands behind his back, 76 headbutted the agent, sending him reeling backward, before kicking another one. Reinhardt, who was observing the situation, wanted to get into the fray but knew that he would only end out hurting his men so he stayed back to insure the vigilante didn't escape. As 76 grabbed another agent and held him in front of him, the other two groaned and threw down their rifles and engaged the enhanced soldier in hand to hand combat. Kicking the agent he was holding into one of them, 76 ducked under a punch and shoved his elbow upward into the man's jaw. One man took out a baton and tried to hit 76 from behind only to get backhanded. As the baton was in the air, 76 grabbed it from the air and smacked the third agent with it as he tried to rush from the other way. As the three men laid on the floor groaning and somewhat bleeding, 76 just sighed and slung his rifle on his back before looking back at Mercy and Reinhardt. From behind them he heard panting and saw the group he had ran away from earlier now with McCree leading them.

"Well what do we have here? What's a masked vigilante like yourself doing in a place like this?" McCree said slowly walking forward.

"You know in the eyes of the law, we're all vigilante" 76 said.

"Fair enough. Now I have one question for you." McCree said tipping his hat with his left hand and his right moving toward his revolver. "Do you feel lucky?" The two men stared each other down. As McCree was about to draw, the sound of ping came from behind him.

"Grenade!" One of the agents behind him yelled as all of them jumped in different directions to get away from the grenade. McCree on the other hand, dove toward Reinhardt as the larger man put up his shield to protect Mercy and McCree. As the group braced themselves for the grenade to go off, 76 took the opportunity to make a break for it while they were distracted. 76 got a few meters before Mercy noticed him running.

"Wait!" The rest of the group turned their attention to Mercy before looking at the direction she was facing. As they saw 76 running, the agents who weren't covered by Reinhardt's Barrier were hesitant to stand by or move and fire at him with an undetonated grenade in close proximity.

"It's high noon." McCree said, drawing everyone's attention as he stood up and lined up with the shot with 76's head. As he was about to draw Peacekeeper, he was interrupted when Ghost ran up behind the cowboy and slid, grabbing his leg and standing up quickly, flipping McCree and uncloaking in the processes. Everyone stared at the man who literally appeared out of nowhere for a moment. Mercy, being the first to react, swung her staff to strike Ghost, only for him to dodge at the last moment and slip past her. Once past the medic, Ghost sprinted after 76, hoping to catch up with the older soldier. However, once he rounded the corner, 76 stopped him. Looking in front of them, Genji and Tracer stood in their way.

"Dammit." Ghost sighed before getting ready to fight. "I'll get the ninja, you get the teleporting girl?"

"Actually, it's time travelling and don't bother. There's too many to fight at once." Just as he finished, Reinhardt shot around the using his charge with Mercy flying close behind and McCree and the other agents running behind her.

"We can take them. This is just like that one time in Mexico with Los Muertos after you made sure that little girl got home safe." Just as he said, Winston landed in front of Tracer and Genji with his team not far behind. "Well...shit." Ghost though for a moment before speaking up. "We're not getting out of this but I have an idea."

"Oh? And what's that?" 76 said as the large group of Overwatch agents trained their weapon on them.

"Don't shoot! We surrender!" Ghost yelled loud enough for everyone to hear and put his hands up. Everyone just stared at him as if he went crazy as he removed his sidearm and put it on the ground.

"That's your plan? Surrendering?" 76 just looked at him before putting his rifle on the ground and putting his hands up as well. "There better be more to this plan."

"Hey, if you want to get shot, that's on you but I intend on making it through this to keep fighting. We got a war to win."

One of the teams of agents approached the two men and quickly zip tied their hands behind their backs and shoved them to their knees as the another two collected their weapons. Once they were sure that their new prisoners were secure, Winston approached them.

"Who are you two and how did you get into this base without tripping security?"

"You left the front door unlocked and we were curious." Ghost answered sarcastically, which got him a rifle butt to the back of the head. 76 didn't take well to that as he stood up and was about to beat down the agent with his hands tied behind back for assaulting his partner before being shoved back down to his knees. "Ow, dick. Hell, can't take a fucking joke."

"Answer the questions." the agent behind Ghost said, roughly forcing him back onto his knees and getting ready to strike again.

"Fine. We're here because of the Recall. We're Overwatch agents. That's why security didn't attack us when we entered. Go through the database, we're both there." Ghost said.

"Athena?" Winston asked.

"One moment, Winston...yes, both Ghost and Soldier: 76 are in the agent database."

"Ghost? I thought your codename was Wraith, Darren?" Mercy asked, approaching the two prisoners. Ghost perked up at hearing his father's name and turned as far as he could to look at doctor.

"Sorry, ma'am, but Wraith died nearly a year ago."

"Then why do you have his armor. And don't lie. I know its not yours."

"Fair enough. Darren gave me the armor when he past away. 76 and I were there when Talon attack his home. Old man didn't go quietly though, that's for sure. Killed every last Talon operative that entered his house." Ghost said with a sad smile under his mask as he played back the day he lost his dad in his head, thinking of all the things he could have done differently to save his dad's life. He was brought out of his train of though as that Mercy spoke to him.

"May I?" Mercy gave a small tug on Ghost's hood. Ghost just nodded and leaned back as Mercy pulled down his hood.

"What are you doing?" Winston asked.

"Just because they are prisoners doesn't mean I will refuse them proper aid." Mercy responded. Turning her attention back to Ghost, she quickly found what she was looking for. On the back of Ghost head a blood freely flowing out of the cut from where the rifle butt impacted his skull. "The fact that you are still conscious is remarkable."

"My dad always said I had a hard head." Ghost said with a chuckle. However, the chuckle turned into heavy breathing as the adrenaline left his system and the pain began flooding in, followed by dizziness. "I don't feel so good, ma'am." Ghost said with a slight sway. Using her staff, Mercy quickly flicked on the healing setting and use it heal the injury.

"There you go. You should be fine now. I healed the injury. The dizzy feeling will go away in a few minutes. If he passes out, bring him to me immediately." As Mercy began to walk away, she heard Soldier: 76 say something that caused her to stop and look back with widen eyes.

"Thanks, doc." It wasn't an uncommon phrase. She had heard it many times on the battlefield while treating soldier across the globe yet here she was, looking back at the masked man all because of that simple phrase. Her first thought slipped out as a whisper before she could stop it.

"Jack?" No one else seemed to have heard and if 76 did hear it, he made no indication that he did. Believing she no one else heard her, she just smiled at the soldier and continued walking to Winston continue his business. Unknown to her, 76 did hear it and was smiling at the medic from beneath his mask.

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It was interesting to for me to write. I'll be honest, while writing this chapter, I had to stop constantly and the go back to think about how I wanted to write this chapter, one of which was 76 and Ghost getting away in the end but with odds against them, I figured this was the most logical choice. That and I've been basically up for the past couple of days getting easily distracted by Overwatch and other games. Apologies.**

 **Anyways, what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Leave a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more your style.**

 **Thanks again and have a great day.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N**

 **Hey everyone. Just wanted to thank everyone for reading up to this point and also to apologize for the wait for this chapter and the last one. Like I said, I get distracted easily.**

 **Since this is the fifth chapter in the story I thought I'd tell you explain Ghost's abilities if by some miracle he was placed in the game since I had this conversation with a reviewer.**

 **Anyways, Ghosts abilities are:**

 **Sprint : self-explanatory, just like Soldier: 76's sprint**

 **Grenade : self-explanatory, hand-tossed grenade to deal a good amount of damage at one moment, good for kicking off a fight or finishing off an opponent in a firefight. If grenade impacts an enemy, it detonates. If not, it bounces once then detonates.**

 **Cloak : Ghost can cloak for around the same duration or close to the same duration of Reaper's Wraith form. Turrets cannot target him while cloak but Ghost can still take damage and activate traps. Firing his weapon or using his grenade ability while cloaked will cause the cloak to end prematurely. Widowmaker's Ultimate and Hanzo's Recon Arrows can also still pick Ghost up even if he's cloaked as well as Mei can still freeze him.**

 **Ultimate : Ghost installs temporary heat sinks into his cloaking device with extends the duration of his cloak by a second or two. Can still take damage and set off traps but Ghost can now fire his weapon while cloaked while the ultimate is active. No damage buff, no armor buff, no health buff. This makes him harder to hit but still leaves him vulnerable to enemy fire and area of effect attacks.**

 **So what did you guys think? I don't know about you but I think that's fairly balance, more or less. Ghost would be good for dealing with turrets or flanking enemy defenders. Let me know what you guys think in a review or comment.**

 **Anyways this chapter is picking up right where the last one left off. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Onto the disclaimer.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch is owned by Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developers. All I own is the plot of this story and a few of the characters.**

 **Now onto your story.**

 _Watchpoint Gibraltar_

Soldier: 76 and Ghost knelt in the middle of storage room, guarded by half a team of Overwatch agents as Winston paced in front of them. Due to the mixed feelings on the two soldiers, the two were moved to that room make sure nothing happened to them in case someone with a grudge decided to have some pay back. Behind him, Tracer sat cheerfully on a box and watch the scientist question the two vigilantes while Mercy stood off to the side glancing every couple of seconds at Soldier: 76.

"So who talks first? I talk first?" Ghost said finally breaking the silence. One of the guards were getting ready to hit Ghost again when Winston turned toward to the guards.

"You're dismissed. We'll handle it from here." Winston said. The guards looks back at Soldier: 76 and hesitated to leave but knowing full well Winston could handle himself and with Tracer and Mercy watching his back, they knew the scientist would be fine and left without a word. Once they had left, Winston stopped pacing and stared down the two men.

"And then there were five. So what's the plan, Winston? More questions or can we just skip that bit and get to the part where you agree to work with us?".

"And why would he do that?" Tracer asked, hopping off her box and approaching him.

"Because we have two things you guys don't. Experience and intel."

"All of our agents are experienced members of Overwatch from before the collapse of the agency and we currently have agents running field ops gathering intel as well as intelligence Athena and I have gathered." Winston proudly stated.

"Congrats but that's not going to help you guys much when those boys and girls out there get themselves killed. They're sloppy and out of practice. Overwatch has at least six agents that are above par, three of which are in this room. That much is obvious when 76 took down those guys without really trying. 76 and I have been fighting this war longer than you have. With the way Overwatch is now, criminal organizations and gang will chew you guys up in the long run. " Tracer looked at him unimpressed while the others listened without a word. "Bottom line, you guys need us as much as we need you."

"If you two are doing so well, what do you need us for?"

"Supplies, back-up, allies, way to clear his name." Ghost nodded toward 76, who just let out a annoyed grunt at younger man. "Hey, I'm not the subject of an international manhunt."

"So what are you proposing?"

"Simple, you scratch our back, we scratch yours. You give us supplies, information every so often, and tell your agents not to shoot us, and we give you information and lend our services to Overwatch." This got another annoyed grunted from 76 but 76 knew that is was the best option for everybody, especially them considering their situation. "Deal?" Winston looked at the younger man of the two before looking at the older one. The deal proposed by Ghost was a good deal to say the least, almost too good. Not only do they get two very experienced soldiers into Overwatch, but the intelligence they have could be very useful considering all they're going against.

"How do we know that you'll keep your end of the bargain?"

"How do we know that you won't try to turn us into Helix International or any other world government first chance you get?" 76 said. This was the first time he had spoken and when he did, everyone went silent as his rough voice almost echoed in the small room.

"Look, we're not here to make enemies. Gods know we already have enough of those. I know you don't trust us and that's fair but you have to understand this is best case scenario for all of us. You don't have the numbers to fight this war and soon or later, Talon is going figure out how to counter 76 and I. If we keep on our present course, we're all going to end up dead and there won't be any more heroes to save the world when the Second Omnic Crisis starts." Winston looked at the younger soldier and sighed. He knew he was correct. With the way the world was now, a second Omnic Crisis was bound to happen and Overwatch was in no condition to stop it this time around. They were lacking in several areas, namely funds and manpower. On top of that, he didn't know what to make of the two soldiers in front of him. He didn't trust them and couldn't figure out their endgame. He needed a way to keep an eye on them to make sure their actions are genuine. Looking back to his fellow agents, Mercy looked like distracted as if she had something else on her mind and Tracer just shrugged.

"Give me a moment to talk it over with the others before we come to any agreement." Winston said nodding to the others and the three Overwatch agents walked out of the room.

"Yeah, sure, not like we're going anywhere." Ghost said. Once they were gone, 76 and Ghost were given a moment to take to each other in private.

"So how long have you been planning this?" 76 asked.

"Oh, I made 90% of that up on the spot." 76 let out an amused grunt.

"Impressive, you made it sound like this was your intention from the start." 76 said. "However, I'm not taking off my mask. I can't have any of them knowing who I am. Not yet." 76's thoughts fell back to a certain medic.

"I understand."

Outside the room, Winston and most of the other agents were gathered there to discuss on what to do with their two prisoners. Winston had informed them of the deal Ghost had proposed and the benefits that came with it.

"I can't believe we're discussing this. Those two are criminals. They broke into the base and shot up the place. They can't be trusted. We should turn them into Helix and be done with it." one of the agents said. He got a few murmurs of agreement for a few agents.

"Actually, they never fired a shot. We checked their weapons and not a single round was fired. The only ones who shot were us." another agent retorted. "They only engaged us when we back them into a corner and they were out of options. I say we trust them for now."

"Their skills would be of great use as would their information." Genji reasoned.

"This isn't the first time we've encountered them either. Back at the warehouse, they could have opened fire on us at any moment and taken us out but instead they showed no ill intend toward us and that soldier fellow even help me out of a jam when he came across from me." McCree chimed in while lighting a cigar.

"Soldier: 76 did save my life at the warehouse." Mercy also reasoned.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend. We should accept their offer but keep watch over them. At least this way we will have some control over their actions." Reinhardt said stroking his beard. More agents seemed to agree with that idea.

"I would trust them more if we can get them to remove those masks of theirs but everyone else is right. I think we should give them a chance." Tracer said

"How do we know they won't betray us once we let our guard down?" another agent asked with his arms folded across his chest.

"They made it clear they needed friends more than enemies and they don't have the supplies to take take on both us and the criminal organizations and gangs they're going up against already." Winston said. "I'm incline to agree with them. It seems like the best course of action for all of us." Majority of the agents seemed to agree with the decision and those that didn't agree grumbled distrust of the two soldiers but accepted the decision. With that concluded, everyone had seemed to wonder off to either get some rest or handle other business. Before she could walk away, Winston stopped Tracer to have a word with her.

"Lena, I have a favor to ask of you."

"Of course, luv. What do you need?"

"I need you to watch Ghost once we agree upon our terms. Get close to him if you can and see what you can learn. He's seems to be the more open one of the two. Soldier: 76 seems too closed up and has too many walls up to let anyone besides Ghost get close to him. While you do that, I'll look into the their agents files and see what I can find out."

"You can count on me." Tracer said, giving the scientist a thumbs up. Winston nodded in response and walked back into the room that held the two soldiers. As they walked in the room, they soon laid eyes on both Soldier: 76 leaning against a wall and Ghost sitting on the box Tracer was sitting on earlier, checking something on his wrist mounted tactical pad, both were out of their binds. Once the door opened, both turned their attention to the two Overwatch agents who walked in.

"So what's the news?" Ghost asked, hopping off the box. "Oh, sorry about the zip-ties. Thought I'd save you the work of having to cut them off so I did myself. We weren't going anywhere anyways." Winston just snored and shook his head.

"A majority of the agents have agreed to give you two a chance." Winston answered.

"And those that didn't?"

"They don't like it but they accepted it."

"So we're all good. You guys agree with the deal?"

"We agree but on two conditions. You two are required to stay here with us until further notice and you two have to help rebuild Overwatch while this deal is in effect." Winston said. Ghost looked back at 76 for confirmation. 76 got off the wall and walked over to them and nodded.

"Alright. We'll play by your rules for now." 76 said, holding out his hand for Winston to shake. Winston looked at the man for a moment before taking his hand and giving it a firm shake. "But for to uphold our part of the deal, we have to go back to the US and get back to the our home base to gather up the rest of our supplies and our intel."

"We can bring you back soon. Just give us the coordinates."

"No, just drop us off in the town of New Castle, Indiana, and we'll make our way back on our own. Can't be giving away all of our secrets just yet." 76 said.

"Fine. We'll get you back there as soon as we can. Now I believe we could all use a rest. Today has been particularly exhausting." Winston said.

"Get use to it, Winston. It only goes downhill from here." Ghost said with a chuckle before turning to 76. "You go on ahead. I'll catch up with you later." 76 nodded and left to start preparing a list things Overwatch needed to do to once again become successful.

"Athena, can you tell me where the nearest terminal is?"

"Of course, Agent Ghost. Follow its down the hall on your left."

"Thank you." Following the instructions provided, Ghost quickly found the terminal he was looking for and accessed it. "Athena, can you bring up the base layout and upload it to my tac-pad." Ghost asked, plugging in his device into the terminal. "I don't want to get lost and have to ask for direction every time." Once the download was complete, Ghost got up and walked around the base to get a feel for the base. He didn't really have a chance to explore while running away.

After wandering around for a bit and receiving some harsh and/or untrusting stares from the rest of the few Overwatch agents that were still up, Ghost eventually found himself outside near Winston's lab and garage. Seeing no one else around, Ghost walked over to the cliff and sat at the edge, removing his mask once he was seated. Reaching into his armor and accessing a small secret compartment, Ghost pulled out an old photo. In the photo was his mom and dad with 8 year old James standing in the middle of them with biggest smile he could make while holding both of their hands. Ghost discovered the photo a few months after his father died while he was repairing the armor. When he stumbled upon the photo, he cried for what felt like hours. He knew it was odd that in age of technology they live in, people still had photographs but his father was an old fashion man and wanted something physical to hold on to while he was out on missions, something Ghost was grateful for now that he had something look back at and remember his parent's faces. As he looked at the photo, part of him wished for the days when he just simply James and not a masked vigilante fighting crime in back alleys and small towns. He knew he and 76 were doing good work but some days he longed for the normal life he knew he could never have again. Hearing someone approaching, Ghost was brought back to reality and noticed that while he was mindlessly staring at the photo, tears had formed in eyes, a few even falling down on to the photo.

"Is everything okay, luv?" Ghost heard a familiar British accent behind him. Wiping his eyes and placing his mask on his face, Ghost turned to look at Tracer.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking, that's all." Tracer walked over and sat next to Ghost.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Tracer looked up at the soldier, noticing the photo in his hand. "What's that?"

"Hm? Oh its nothing. Just an old photo of me and my parents." Ghost said putting the photo away into his armor. "What's brings you out here? Shouldn't you get some rest?" Ghost asked hoping to change the subject.

"I was with Winston in his lab when I saw you wandering around outside all by yourself from the window. Thought I'd check up on you."

"Well as you can see I'm fine but I thank you for the concern..." Ghost trailed off. He had overheard her name earlier but didn't want to say anything until he had a proper introduction.

"Lena. My name's Lena Oxton."

"Well thank you for the concern, Miss Oxton." Ghost said, smiling under his mask. Tracer just giggled at how formal he sounded.

"Please, just Lena. What's your name?" In truth, she knew his name already since she was with Winston when he was going through Ghost's agent profile. Ghost stared at her for a moment, debating if he should tell her, deciding that it would be better in the long run if he told her.

"James. James Hawke." Ghost held out his hand to Tracer. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"A pleasure to meet you too." Tracer said with a smile and shook his hand. With that, the two fell into a comfortable silence and went back to looking back at the scene before them.

 **A/N**

 **And that's wrap. No action going on in this chapter. More of just character interaction and forming the shaky relationship between Overwatch and the two soldiers. Both groups aren't exactly the most trusting of each other at the moment and hopefully I can make it interesting to see them working together.**

 **So as I finished this chapter, they released the trailer and origin trailer for the newest character in Overwatch, Ana Amari, Pharah's mother. I found the trailers really cool and while I'm terrible with Widowmaker (I'm actually pretty decent with Hanzo), I'm actually pretty excited to try my hand at her once she arrives. So what do you guys think of Ana? I'll definitely do my best to include her into my story once I'm able to get some more info on her and her personality and once the time is right to bring her into the story. I'm looking forward to that.**

 **Anyway, thank you so much for reading this story. What did you guys think of it so far? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Leave a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more you're style.**

 **Thanks again and have a great day.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**

 **Hey everybody. Just a short author note here, just wanted to thank everyone whose read the story. You guys are great and it really helps me keep motivated to keep updating this story.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developers. All I own are some characters and the plot of this story.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Watchpoint Gibraltar, The Rock of Gibraltar_

As morning came around, Ghost left his spot at the edge of the cliff to meet up with Soldier: 76 after getting a message on where to meet him. Tracer had left earlier in the night, leaving him alone once more. He and Tracer continued to talk for a few hours and got to know each other a little better but after trading stories of what they did during the day, Ghost had insisted that Tracer get some rest until the cheerful, young Brit finally agreed. Before she said goodnight, Tracer made him promise that they'd continue their conversation when she woke up. Once he promised that they would continue, Tracer said goodnight and quickly went back to the crew quarters. He enjoyed her company, more than he would probably admit. Her cheerfulness was infectious and he couldn't help but smile. Hell, he was smiling as he thought about it while walking. As he entered Winston's garage, Ghost quickly shook the thoughts from his head. Looking around the garage, Ghost saw parts and contraptions scattered on the tables as well as tire swing up above and what looked like a the capsule of a space craft dangling from the ceiling.

"Up here." Ghost turned to see 76 standing at the broken window. Quickly ascending up the stairs, 76 walking over to greet him halfway.

"What's up, boss?" Ghost asked leaning on the railing.

"We're waiting on Winston. Athena told me Winston wanted to see us first thing in the morning. So she let me in here a few minutes before you showed up."

"Any ideas on why he wanted to talk to us?"

"Not sure. We're going in blind on this one."

"Alright." Ghost said running a hand through his hair. "So what did you do for the rest of the night?"

"Compiled a list of things that needs to be done if Overwatch is going get back on its feet. I sent you a copy of the list so if you have any ideas on how to accomplish these or anythings I missed, I'm all ears." Ghost looked down at his tac-pad and saw the small notification showing the received list. "What about you? I haven't seen you since we agreed on the terms of our agreement."

"Oh, you know, the usual. Getting to know the layout the base, getting some unfriendly glares from some agents that don't trust, enjoying the view, crying, and making friends." Ghost listed off as he opened up the list and began skimming it. "Alright, I might have some ideas for the things on this list."

"None of those are even close to your usual. Why were you crying?" 76 asked, interested in what Ghost was referring to. Ghost looked over at 76 and sighed before reaching into his armor and pulling out the photo.

"I found this awhile back while repairing the armor. Dad wanted a way to have us close by even when he was away on missions so he had this photo taken." Ghost explained, handing 76 the photo. 76 looked over the photo and let out a sad sigh. He had been friends with both his parents and thought highly of them. "I miss them, John." 76 put his hand on Ghost's shoulder, an action 76 had done many times as a sign of comfort.

"I know, James. I do too." 76 said handing him back the photo. Ghost looked down at the photo and sigh before putting it away. The two stood in silence as for the next couple of minutes. It was uncommon for them to call each other by name outside of their home base. Yet even in the moment, James took into consideration 76's identity and when calling him by name, used John instead Jack, the name he was more commonly referred to, which 76 appreciated greatly. After a few minutes of silence, 76 spoke up again, hoping to change the subject to something lighter. "So what's this about you making friends? Who was it?"

"Lena Oxton." Ghost chuckled. He knew what 76 was trying to do. "She caught me sitting by myself at the edge of the cliff looking at the photo of parents."

"Not thinking of doing anything too drastic, I hope?" 76 asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, nothing like that. Besides, you would miss me too much if I was gone." Ghost said trying to lighten up the mood. 76 pushed Ghost with a small chuckle but the younger soldier was right. He had gotten so accustom to having Ghost around. "Anyways, we traded stories for a couple of hours then she left to go get some sleep." 76 nodded, remembering the hyperactive young woman. "She's interesting, to say the least. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to talking to her again." Ghost smiled underneath his mask while 76 looked at him with a raised eye brow. "By the way, what's taking Winston so long? He should have been here by now. Are we too earlier?"

"No, Athena wouldn't have let us in we were." 76 said standing up straight and looked around. Ghost was about to speak when a door opened, drawing both of their attentions. From the door, emerged Winston.

"Oh good, you're here. We can begin immediately." Winston said looking up at the two men. Quickly climbing up the tire swing and joining the two men, the three walked over to the room that contained Winston's computer. "Sorry for being late, I was caught up checking Athena's systems here." Winston said taking a seat and signed into his computer while Ghost walked over to the window overlooking the outside and 76 leaned on the wall. "Let's discuss how to Overwatch back on its feet." Both men looked at Winston before looking at each other.

"Athena." 76 just simply said. On Winston terminal, the list 76 had created appeared in a new window. Reading through the list, Winston saw some of these suggestions were idea he's already had when he sent out activated the Recall Beacon, he just wasn't sure how to go about them. Once he finished, he sighed and looked back at the two men.

"Alright, so how do we go about accomplishing these?"

"Our top priorities have to be getting recruits for Overwatch and getting the public to once again view Overwatch as an organization for good."

"Talon might have control over the media and there's a good chance political leaders are corrupt. That's a lot of opposition we're facing." Ghost added. "But that shouldn't stop us from helping people. Even if we can't get the higher up officials on our side, we can still get the people on our side."

"And that can help us with the recruitment because when people hear Overwatch is back and helping people, people will want to join us and do their part." Winston said hopefully.

"That or it might inspire old Overwatch agents to rejoin."

"Or paint a bigger target on our backs." 76 said grimly. They knew he was right. Once Overwatch is back on the radar, they'll be making a lot of enemies and not of enough friends. All Overwatch activity is considered illegal due to the Petras Act. "We need a plan before we show our hand to the world."

"Alright, talk about the next topic, getting recruits. Any ideas?" Winston asked.

"I have one on that one." Ghost spoke up. "There are a lot of children of deceased Overwatch agents who are either around my age or older that wanted to follow in their parents footsteps but never got a chance. We could start with them for recruits, give them the chance they never got, provided they past the necessary requirements and are willing." The other two thought about it and saw its merits but were hesitant of dragging the children of old friends and comrades into the war that they were about to wage.

"Its a good place to start but all recruits have to agree on their own intuition. I know we can't afford to be picky on who we recruit at the moment but I won't allow people to be bullied into working for us." Winston stated. Before they could continue, Athena's voice cut into the conversation.

"Soldier: 76, Ghost, Doctor Ziegler wishes to speak to you two immediately to perform a medical examination."

"Can it wait?" Winston asked.

"She was quite insistent, Winston."

"Well then its best you don't keep her waiting her. We'll continue this later." Winston said walking up to the two men and putting his hands on their shoulders As he let go, he said one last thing. "I must warn you, however, if you harm anyone in this family, I will not hesitate to turn you both in to the authorities and hunt you down should you escape. Now go on. Best not keep her waiting." With that, the two men quickly left the garage and made their way to the medical lab.

The walk was a quiet one. Even with the base so scarcely populated, it felt like they came across every agent in the base and each of them stopped whatever they were doing to stare at them. As they approached the medical lab, the two guards that stood in front tensed at the sight of the two enhanced soldiers.

"We're here to see Doctor Ziegler." 76 said to the guards. Rather then antagonize him, one of the guard just nodded and nudged his head toward the door.

"Athena let us know you were coming. Doctor Ziegler is waiting inside. Go on in." 76 nodded at the man and both were approached the door but before they could enter the other guard stuck out his hand and blocked their path.

"No funny business in there." 76 just let out what sounded like a low growl and the guard quickly retracted his arm back to his side, allowing the two soldiers into the medical center. Once they were inside, the friendlier of the two guards turned to his partner.

"Was that really necessary?"

"Come on, they got nothing on us."

"Us? Oh no. They can probably take us with both arms tied behind their backs while blindfolded. Don't drag me down with you. You're on your own." the man said. The other guard just scoffed and waved off his partner and they both returned to their duty. Inside, 76 hesitantly knocked on the door to Mercy's office.

"Come in." Mercy's voice came from the other side of the door. The door opened automatically before them and in front of them at her desk was Angela Ziegler. She wasn't wearing her Valkyrie suit. Instead she was in a normal outfit, a button up shirt with a skirt and a white lab coat over it all. Ghost walked in with no problem but 76 stopped the second he laid eyes on her. Luckily for him, she wasn't paying attention.

"Coming, sir?" Ghost asked. This brought him back into reality as well as got the attention of Mercy, causing her to look her up at the two men who just entered her office. 76 just walked over next to Ghost without a word, looking at the floor. Ghost just stood there with a smirk under his mask and when Mercy turned away for a moment, he nudged lightly 76 with his elbow which 76 responded to in kind except a lot rougher, furthering the amusement of the younger man.

"So gentlemen, I'd like to ask you a few questions and perform a few tests, a physical and few medical examinations. Is that alright with you?" Mercy said taking out a clipboard and a pen. "I'll ask the more private questions when I test you individuality but for now I want you both to answer me this. When I noticed that when I healed Ghost last night, his body reacted with my healing application of my staff almost flawlessly, meaning you both have an above average amount of nanites in your body. That's usually something someone in the medical field would have due to them working so closely with them. Why is that?"

"My father gave me an injection of plasma that had nanites in it after a particularly bad injury a few years ago. That way, my body reacts to biotic fields and evidently, you're staff. He made sure my body accepted them and wouldn't fight against them or flush them out of my system" Ghost said.

"What about you, Soldier?" Mercy asked. 76 took out a canister from his pocket and handed it to Mercy for her to exam. "What is this?" The object had a feeling of familiarity to her and she had a good idea of what it was but she didn't want to acknowledge the thought.

"I have an above average amount of nanites in my bloodstream as well because of time in the Army and Overwatch. That biotic field generator creates a field that our nanites react to stimulate our healing." 76 said. Of course, Mercy already knew all of this. She had seen it countless times on missions with Jack. The device brought back so many memories of her and her commander. A small smile graced her lips as her mind played them back. However, they were cut short as she reminded herself of the men in her office.

"Right. I better start the tests." Mercy said walking away and gathering and preparing her tools. "Which one of you wishes to go first?"

"I'll go." 76 said, stepping forward.

"Alright. Ghost, please wait in the waiting room. I will send Soldier there to tell you when it is your turn." Ghost just bowed slightly and walked out. "Now I need you to take off your shirt, I want to check your lung." 76 compiled without issue. Once his shirt was off, Mercy was surprised from what she saw. While his body was almost youthful and well built, something that proved to be very distracting, she couldn't help but notice all the scars. It seemed his had scars from nearly ever type of injury you can receive from a life of military service, gunshots, cuts and stabs, small burns from explosions. Her careful examination of his body didn't go unnoticed. 76 just stood there with a smile under his mask.

"See something you like, doc?" 76 said suddenly drawing her out her inspection. Mercy's face flushed red and she couldn't bring herself to make eye contact. Grabbing her stethoscope, she placed the buds in her ears and held the other end against his chest.

"Sit up straight and take a deep breath." 76 did as he was told. "Now breath out all the way." 76 once again compiled. "Keep doing that until I say otherwise." Listening to his heartbeat and his breathing through the stethoscope, finding nothing wrong with the exception of a slightly elevated heart rate but chalked it up his training as a soldier. "You can stop now. Why don't you answer a few questions for me while I prepare the next test." 76 just grunted in response. "What is your name?"

"Soldier: 76." he said. She figured he would answer as so. With a sigh, she continued.

"Age and date of birth?"

"Classified." This was going to get old fast.

"Next of kin?"

"None."

"Do you ever take off your mask?"

"Occasionally." 76 simply stated. Mercy groaned internally. It was going to be a long testing period if he kept refusing to make her it easier on her and tell her who she's working with and what kind of person he was. She could only hope that Ghost was a little more cooperative with her chatting than he was otherwise it was going to be a long day.

The rest of the tests went by slowly. Mercy got little to no information about their mysterious vigilante except for medical information that was required. With a heavy sigh, the doctor sent 76 out of her office to go tell Ghost it was his turn. After a few minutes, Ghost walked into the office, making his presence known by knocking at the door.

"Ma'am."

"Ah, Ghost, welcome back. Take off your shirt, I'll being checking your lungs." Mercy said. Ghost did as he was told and took off the his shirt, revealing a well built body. He has noticeably thinner than 76 and less scars but he still looked to be in better shape than most his age or even among most of the other Overwatch agents. Going through the same lung examination as 76, Mercy found no problems with his lungs.

"Alright, Ghost, I have found no problems in your lungs. You can put your shirt back on." Ghost nodded and walked over to go grab his shirt. "Before we continue, I just want you to answer a few questions. What is your name?"

"James Hawke." Mercy looked up in surprise. She wasn't expecting to get an answer.

"Age and date of birth?"

"28? And I'll get back to you on that one. I don't remember." Mercy stared at him confused for a moment before sighing and continuing.

"Next of kin."

"None."

"Should I even ask about the mask?"

"If you're asking if it comes off, then yes it does but not as often as I'd like." Mercy nodded and gather the next tool she needed for the next test. She was hoping for too much when she asked about the mask.

Unlike before, the test went by a little fast as Ghost was more cooperative with answering general questions yet he still managed not to give away any kind of information besides his name that could reveal his identity. While Mercy appreciated the conversation, it didn't help her curiosity about the two men's origins.

"Alright, you're all done here. Feel free to stop by anytime if you are in need of medical treatment."

"Thank you, ma'am." Ghost said walking out of the office. Not seeing 76 when he walked out, he walked out past the guards when one of them stopped him.

"Hey, man. You're buddy left awhile ago. He told us to tell you that he's going to back Winston's lab to continue talking to him."

"Thanks, dude." Ghost said walking back the direction he came from earlier. As he was walking, he caught sight of a familiar woman in an orange jumpsuit, brown bomber jacket, and chronal accelerator just as she walked out of one of the building but didn't have her white arm guards that contained her pistols. When she finished stretching, she looked around and saw Ghost walking by.

"Oi, James!" Tracer called out to him. Ghost stopped walking and waited for the young woman to catch up.

"Morning, Lena. Sleep well?"

"I guess. Still a bit tired, though." Tracer said. As if to prove her point, she yawned right after, which caused Ghost to smile under his mask. "What about you?"

"I never went to sleep. I stayed on the cliff for the rest of the night." Ghost said. Tracer frowned at this. "Anyways, what's your plan for the day? I'm off to meet up with 76 and Winston to talk about how to get Overwatch back on its feet."

"Mind if I tag along? I have nothing planned."

"Sure. Come on." With that, the two started walking toward to Winston lab. The walk started off quiet but it quickly ended with Tracer being the first to break it.

"So...mind if I ask you something?"

"You just did." Ghost responded. Tracer just gave him an odd look. "Sorry, I've spent way too long with 76. What's up?"

"I'm curious. Why do you and Soldier: 76 always wear masks?" Tracer asked. While she was truly curious of what the reasoning behind it, she was also tasked by Winston to find out as much information as possible about the two newest allies of Overwatch by getting close to Ghost. Ghost, on the other hand, examined the young woman next to him to see if it was genuine curiosity driving the question or if she was order to do this. He had his assumptions that she was ordered to talk to him seeing as no other Overwatch agent would even approach him or 76 but he didn't want to call her out on it on the chance that she was actually being genuinely kind and wanted to try being friends.

 _'Christ, I sound as untrusting as 76 right now.'_ Ghost thought to himself with a mental sigh. _'But then again, I don't want to compromise us if I'm right.'_ With another mental sigh, Ghost stopped his train of thought and decided that it be better if he referred to the advice of his superior. _'I'll talk to 76 about it later.'_

"Would you believe me if I said we were superheroes?" Ghost said trying to deflect the question with humor. While he's response got a giggle out of Tracer, it didn't work as she looked at him expecting some kind of answer. "Didn't think so. Truth be told, if it wasn't necessary, I wouldn't wear mine. Main reason we wear them is to hide our identity."

"Well obviously. Come on, you can tell." she said with a smile.

"Truth be told, I wouldn't wear mine if I didn't have to."

"Why do you have to?"

"Let's just say certain people were less than please with my family and had us all killed. However, they don't know I survived thus why I have to wear a mask."

"And the photo was..."

"Of my parents, One of the only things I have left of them really. Our house was destroyed in the fighting." Ghost said his voice dropping a little. Tracer smile went away once she heard that, stopping him midwalk and hugged him, which surprised him to say the least and he felt his face heat up. When she let go of him, she looked back up at him.

"I'm sorry." Tracer said. Her normal cheerfulness was nowhere to be found in her voice. Ghost just made a sad smile under his mask and felt bad for bringing down the mood with what he said. This time, he wrapped his arms around the smaller woman.

"It's fine. You couldn't have known. I'm sorry for bring down the mood." Before he could let go, Tracer reciprocated the action with a small smile. Letting go, Ghost looked around, unable to meet her gaze her and nervously scratched the back of his head before regaining his composure. "Come on, they're waiting for us." Tracer looked at him for a moment before smiling and nodding, her cheerfulness quickly returning.

As they continued walking in silence, a beeping coming caught both of their attentions. Hearing it was coming from Ghost's wrist, Ghost looked at the small screen and saw a notification from one of their contacts. Clicking on the screen, it opened up to show an image from a balcony of civil unrest in King's Row, people and Omnics protesting and riot police on standby. However, what caught his eye was an armored figured toward the crowd. The armor was all too recognizable as the standard issue Talon armor. Just before he could say anything else, another notification appeared in the screen, this time of a Talon dropship in Ilios, Greece.

"Well...shit." Ghost said before turning to Tracer. "We need to get to 76 and Winston."

"What's going on?"

"Trouble and lots of it. Talon could be making a play soon." That was all Tracer need to hear as she nodded and the two took off running. As they ran, Ghost's radio came to life.

"Ghost."

"I got it too, sir. We're en route to your position. I have Lena with me."

"Location."

"Cutting through the hanger."

"Hold there, we're coming to you."

"We?" Ghost said, stopping suddenly. Tracer ran past him before stopping and blinking back next to him.

"Winston agreed to give us a lift back to US once I told him what was happening."

"Got it. Holding locations." With that the radio went silent. Turning to Tracer, Ghost figured he should explain to her what was happening while they waited. "76 and Winston are going to meet us here. 76 and I got reports from some contacts of the situation in a couple of locations. It didn't look good. Riots in King's Row with a Talon soldier spotted in the crowd as well as Talon dropship being spot in Ilios, Greece."

"So what's going to happen?"

"I'm going to assume 76 and I are going home."

"Home?! You're going to abandon us?" Tracer yelled. This got a small chuckle out of Ghost.

"No, I'm not abandoning you and I promise I never will. Its just 76 and I have to pick some things, maybe even someone if they're there, from our home base if we're going help you guys. Plus I left my rifle there. Kinda need that to fight effectively." Ghost said smiling, forgetting for a moment that she couldn't see that. "After that, again I'm assuming here, 76 and/or myself will deploy to engage and disrupt Talon efforts in the area or gather intel on what's going on before engaging." This caused Ghost to frown under his mask. He didn't like the fact that Talon was getting bolder like this and he was having trouble figuring out the motive for what they were doing this time. For King's Row it was obvious. The place had always been a location of tension between in humans and Omnics. Its also where the highest number of Omnics were located due the close proximity to the reactor however what they were doing in Ilios was beyond him at the moment. The opening of doors caught his attention and soon enough 76 and Winston came jogging in.

"Winston, what are you doing here?" Tracer asked seeing the gorilla.

"I agreed to bring them back to Indiana to they could gather up the equipment they need to help us. Looks like we're going to be doing it sooner rather than later. Mind if I borrow you ship?"

"Sure as long as I get to go along too. No one is piloting her without me watch them." Tracer said jerking her thumb toward her dropship.

"You're a pilot?" Ghost asked confused as Winston climbed up to dropship and entered it.

"She joined Overwatch as a pilot. One of the youngest pilots at the time but after the incident with a prototype fighter, she stopped being a pilot and became a field agent." 76 explained as he watched the engines cycle on. Ghost looked at him, surprised by information told to him.

"But I never lost my skill in the cockpit or on the ground." She said looking at Ghost before turning to 76. "So mind if I take along?" 76 looked at her before glancing over to Ghost who just shrugged.

"Fine. Get your gear while we finish getting the dropship prepped. Ghost, go grab our weapons from the armory." Both of them nodded and ran off to go complete the tasks they were told to do. Once they were gone 76 quickly ascended the stairs and entered the dropship. Quickly climbing the stairs to cockpit, he stopped at the controls next to Winston. It had been years since he last entered one of these. He was rusty but he still remembered his way around the controls. Cracking his knuckles. he pressing a few keys, he opened a channel for Athena to use so she can access the ship and speed up the process. Hitting a few other keys, the ship ran a full diagnostics on its systems. The diagnostics would take a few minutes so 76 walked out of the cockpit and walked down the stairs to check on the supplies on board. As he was checking the ammunition box and supplies boxes and bags to make sure they were filled and were strapped down properly, Tracer returned with her white arm guards on with her two pistols inside and made her way to the cockpit. A few minutes later just as the system diagnostic showed everything green, Ghost returned with 76's heavy pulse rifle strapped to his back and his pistol in the holster.

"Ready to go." Ghost said, removing the heavy pulse rifle from his back and tossing it 76, who caught it with ease and put on his back.

"Let's get work." With that dropship door closed and the hanger doors opened allowing the dropship to take off.

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for reading this. I hope this is up to par for what you guys have been expecting or hoping. I know the past couple of chapter have been a bit slow but it should pick up soon. Look forward to that. This chapter kinda shows the relationship 76 and Ghost have outside of combat as well as few character more interactions. Probably a bunch of mistakes that I missed as well.**

 **Also, issue #8 of the Overwatch comic came out earlier today which I read at 2am and boy does it change a lot of what I planned for this story. This changes how Ana will be included into the story because of the events of the comic as well as the reveal of 76 being Jack Morrison. So expect Ana joining our current heroes sooner rather than later but like 76, the Overwatch crew won't immediately know who she is. So if you have read them already, I highly recommend you do. They're free to read online. No download required.**

 **On a side note, the next update might take a little bit longer as my attention is going to be divided and also intent to draw Ghost. So apologies ahead of time.**

 **So what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Leave me a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more your style.**

 **Thanks again and as always, have a great day.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N**

 **Hey everybody. Just a quick thank you to everyone for reading this story. It really is just amazing seeing you guys and girls taking a liking to this story. This is a short author note and a short chapter. Hopefully, everything is up to par.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developers. All I own is the a few characters and the plot of the story.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Overwatch dropship, Over the Atlantic Ocean_

With the flight underway and the course plot for New Castle, Tracer engaged the autopilot before heading into the main cabin were everyone else was. Winston stood by the holotable with projections of the global with their position on it on it and the position of the Overwatch satellite in its orbit around the planet. Soldier: 76 and Ghost were seat by the table, Ghost was swiping through something on his wrist mounted device while Soldier: 76 was cleaning his weapon. Deciding to see what Winston was doing, she walked up next to her old friend.

"Whatcha doing there, Winston?"

"Hmm? Oh, I just going through reports from agents on the field. Most have reported no change in the situations in their areas and are asking for further orders."

"And what are your orders?"

"For most, its to hold position and keep watch. For the rest, I'm ordering that they relocate to areas that have more tensions and keep an eye on the situations there." Winston answered. Tracer hummed in response before turning back look at Ghost and 76 only to see that Ghost was gone. "I'm rather busy at the moment. Why don't you go talk to Ghost?" Winston suggested, looking at the young woman. Tracer just quickly looked at him before smiling and went to go find younger of the two soldiers. Searching from the back of the ship all the way to the front, she couldn't find him. Stopping in the small nook underneath the cockpit, she thought about where he could be hiding. There weren't many places to hide on the dropship that was until she thought she saw the air next to her shimmer. As she turned to investigate it, she felt someone poke up her sides, causing her to jump and let out a 'eep.' Turning around, Ghost uncloaked while laughing. With the mask on, his voice wasn't as rough as Soldier's but the laugh combined with the voice filters made him sound rather funny, which caused the young British woman to join in the laugh.

"How long have you been following me?" Tracer asked once the laughter died down.

"The entire time. I was wondering when you'd notice the me." While she couldn't see it, she could tell he was smiling underneath the mask. After the talk in the hanger back at base, she began to try figuring out what facial expressions he was making from his voice. "So what's up?"

"Nothing. Just wanted someone to talk to. These long flights can get so boring when there are so few people."

"Well sorry for not being more entertaining." Ghost huffed, feinting a hurt tone that Tracer immediately saw through and giggled which immediately brought the smile back on his face. "I know what you mean though, these kind of flights aren't exactly the most interesting. Normally, once 76 and I run out of things to do, we just sleep the rest of the journey off since we tend to operate for days on end without sleep." Tracer just hummed in response. "So what do you want to talk about?"

"Anything really."

"A rather broad topic, don't think?" Ghost said with a chuckle.

"Fine then you come up with something."

"Alright. I've already told you plenty of things about me. I want to know more about you. Records and databases only go so far."

"Rather broad topic, don't you think?" Tracer said teasingly.

"We got time." Ghost said talking a seat on the ground.

"Fine." Tracer said taking a seat next to him. "I grew up in London." Tracer began. In the main hold of the dropship, Winston could hear Tracer telling her story to Ghost and chuckled.

"They seem to be getting along." 76 said prompting the gorilla to turn around to face the older soldier. 76 was looking over at the direction Tracer and Ghost were at.

"Very well, if I might add." Winston said. "What about you? Have you taken the opportunity to get to know the others?"

"Never really occurred to me to try." 76 lied. In all honesty, he remember of the current agents from back when he was Strike-Commander and familiarized himself with those he didn't remember with the help of Athena. None of them seemed to have changed since he last saw them.

"Well when we get back, you should try. I'm sure there are a few that would like to get know you. I, myself, am quite curious to know more about you and James." Winston said turning back around and bringing up both his and Ghost's agent profiles. 76 turned back to look at the profiles. The only things marked on his profile were a photo of him, the his name listed as 'Soldier: 76' as well as a few minor details.

"We're not here to make friends." 76 said before looking back at the weapon as he began reassembling it.

"Maybe not." Winston said with a sigh. "But it'll make it easier for the rest of us to trust you if you give something to work with. Soon or later, you're going to working with other agents that aren't Ghost and they're going to have a hard time trusting you to watch over them if they have no clue who you are." 76 silent groaned. He knew Winston was right but he also knew he couldn't afford to have anyone else know who he is. It was bad enough Reyes knew he was still alive and was actively hunting him. With a heavy sigh, 76 replied to the gorilla before him.

"I'll try talk to someone when we get back." With that, Winston smiled and went back to examining images on the holotable. With his weapon reassembled and Ghost occupied. 76 figured it was time for him to get some rest and hope that this painfully awkward journey would be over by the time he awoke.

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 _Jack laid there, unmoving. As he did, the smell of smoke and feeling of a liquid running down his face caused him to awaken with a sharp gasp. As he sat up, a sharp pain spread throughout his body causing him to cry out. Looking down at the source of the pain, he found a piece of metal lodged into his side. As he looked down, he felt the liquid on his face dripping down his chin. Bringing a hand up to wipe it away, he noticed it was sticky and warm and when looked at liquid that covered his hand, he realized it was blood, his blood. As the blood started to fall into his left eye, he surveyed his surroundings. He was sitting there in a pool of his own blood surrounded and covered by rubble. Doing his best to crawl out of the rubble he was under without upsetting his wounds too much, the Strike-Commander winced in pain as every movement only seemed to cause more damage to his already failing body. Finally freeing himself, he braced himself against some rubble as he forced himself to stand. With a cry of pain and effort, Jack Morrison was on his feet. Panting, he looked over himself once more. His clothes were torn and more cuts and injuries were visible and bleeding. The blood stains on his shirt has only seemed to have grown with fresh blood pouring from his wounds. How he still conscious was beyond him at this point. He noticed that his holster had barely survived the explosion as well and went he started limping his way to the nearest exit, his foot bumping against his pistol. With much effort and pain, Jack retrieved his sidearm before limping his way out with one hand braced against the walls for support and the other clutched firmly against his side in hopes that bleeding would less. As he passed through the destroyed, caved in corridors, what he saw would haunt him until his dying days. The corpses of other Overwatch members were littered almost everywhere he went. Some were killed by Reyes and Blackwatch as they made their intentions known while others were killed in the resulting explosion, trying to evacuate on orders from Morrison himself as he realized Blackwatch was rebelling. Jack broke down into tears as he passed by all the fallen members of Overwatch and Blackwatch, of all the fallen members of his_ family _._

 _'Why had Blackwatch rebelled? Why would Gabriel, his best friend for over two decades, since the Onmic Crisis, do this? Was he really that jealous of something as stupid as a promotion? Of all the stupid attention he was getting? Why, why, why ,why WHY?!' Jack screamed mentally. He couldn't believe this. He almost outright refused to believe it but he knew that he should have seen it coming. Reyes refused to cooperate with him when he asked for mission reports and updates on Blackwatch, especially as Overwatch took all the blame for Blackwatch mission. Morrison was in the dark as much as the public was when it came to Blackwatch._

 _'This is my fault. I should have seen this coming. I should have stopped Gabe. I should have been stricter and had tighter control of Blackwatch and their operations. I should have done something. I...I...this is all my fault.' Jack thought as he sunk to the floor. Through his blurred vision and failing hearing, he heard his dog tags jingle front of him and watch as they dangled from his neck. Through everything they manage to stay on him. With a shaky hand, he reached up and grabbed the small plates of metal. They were scratched heavily from his years of being on the field but the words indented onto them were still clearly visible._

 _Morrison, John 'Jack', Strike-Commander, Overwatch. He couldn't stop looking at those words. He use to look at them with such pride. As a reminder of what he's accomplished but now, now he can only look at them in disgust. He didn't deserve to lead those brave men and women and they didn't deserve to be lead by a man like him. They deserved better than him. Gripping the tags tighter, Jack tore his dog tags from his neck and threw them back down the hallway. He wasn't sure where they had gone but he didn't care anymore. For all he cared John 'Jack' Morrison died in that room he woke up in. With dull eyes and a numbed body, he got up without a sound and limped his way out of what should have been his tomb as a new man as the memory faded into black._

 _He stood there in darkness, alone. He was no longer Jack Morrison. He had donned his leather jacket and mask and was known as Soldier: 76, vigilante and mercenary. He looked around, his senses on edge, waiting for something to strike but instead all that was around him was nothing. Finally, he heard something, the sound of a person, someone familiar, speaking off in the distance from behind him. As he turned to point his rifle around, he found that his main form of defense was gone. Reaching to his side, he found his holster empty as well. As he spared a quick glance to the empty holster, he quickly looked up to come face to face with someone he didn't expect to see again James's father, Darren Drake._

 _"Commander." The scout stood there in front of the soldier. He was bloodied, his clothes torn and with bullet holes in his chest. As he examined his old friend, a second voice was heard behind him. Spinning around, he came face-to-face with Gerard Lacroix with multiple stab wounds in his chest and his throat slit, blood staining his shirt._

 _"Commander." Now both voices spoke in sync._

 _"How could you let this happen to us, Commander? We trusted you, Jack. You promised to watch over us and protect us." As 76 backed away from the ghost of his old friends, he bumped into someone else. Turning, he saw Bayless with a bullet hole in his chest and Al-Farouk with a bullet hole in his side. As he turned to get away, Singh stood there with bullet hole in his upper body. Soon, he was surrounded by the ghost of the dead, how they died visible on their bodies, all of them chanting the same thing. With nowhere to turn to and the chants of the dead getting louder and no way to defend himself as the horde closed in, 76 just covered his ears hoping to tune them out._

 _"No, none of you are real. All of you are dead. This is just a dream." 76 shouted falling to his knees but the chant just got louder. Suddenly, the chanted stopped and he looked up to see a split in the crowd around him. In front of him, stood a single person. As he looked up, he saw Jack Morrison, his younger self. The cuts on his face were fresh, blood still freely flowing from them. The piece of metal still lodged into his side and his clothes and what was left of his armor, torn, broken and bloodied. He had a sad smile, his blue eyes filled with sadness. As Soldier: 76 stood up to stand face-to-face with his younger self, Jack spoke up._

 _"How could we let this happen, John? How many more need to die because of us? We can't let this happen again." Jack said gently placing a hand on 76's shoulder. And with that, 76 woke up._

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76 woke up in a cold sweat with a sharp gasp. As he quickly sat up, he clawed at his mask before finally being able to rip it off his face and throwing to the side. He was breathing hard. His nerves were on high alert, his body in a complete panic mode. Feeling someone put there hand on his shoulder, he grabbed their hand and arm and flipped them over his shoulder on to the couch in front of him before straddling the person and grabbing their throat with one hand while his other quickly drawing his pistol and aimed it directly for their head. As the person struggled for air, noticed the mask the person wore and quickly tore it off and threw it to the side. It wasn't until he saw the surprised and almost scared expression in James's eyes did he register what was going on.

"James." 76 let go of the younger man's throat and getting off him, allowing him to breath properly. James coughed as air once again filled his lunges as he back away a bit and sat up straight. As his coughs turned into heavy pants for air, James spoke up.

"Holy shit, man." Before 76 could respond, Tracer called down from the cockpit.

"Is everything alright back there?"

"Yeah. Just stay up there and you and Winston focus on getting us a landing area." James called back. When he just remember that he no longer had the voice filter, he cursed silently.

"What? James, is that you? You sound different?"

"Yeah, my mask is just malfunctioning. Don't worry about me, focus on the clouds or something." He lied as 76 got up and retrieved the two discarded masks. Throwing James his mask, 76 reequipped his mask. As James reequipped his mask, the voice filtered kicked in. "It's working." Ghost yelled. After that, he and 76 entered an awkward silence.

"Sorry about that." 76 said breaking the silence.

"Yeah no problem. Just gotta remember to avoid you in the morning for now on." Ghost said as his breathing even out and he rubbed his neck. "Nightmares?"

"Yeah. I'm good now." 76 simply stated as he walked back to couch he woke on sat down. Ghost just walked over and patted the older man on the back without saying anything. As he walked away, Ghost walked over to the door and looked out the window.

"Lena wanted me to tell you that we're approaching New Castle. When you're ready, meet us up at in the cockpit." Ghost said looking back at 76, who just nodded. Ghost nodded back and made his way to the cockpit.

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for reading this chapter and this story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was interesting to write, to say the least. Again, probably a lot of mistakes I missed so if you spot a lot of them, please let me know so I can keep an eye out for them. I tend to write the bulk of this these chapters at 4-5am until I knock out or have to get up so it'll be helpful for me.**

 **So what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Leave me a comment or review or shoot me a PM if that's more your style.**

 **Thanks again and have a great day.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N**

 **Hey everybody. Again, not much to say again. I do want to say thank you to everyone reading this story and those who are new to the story, welcome. Now for the disclaimer.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developer. I own nothing but a few characters and the plot of the story.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Indiana, United States of America_

As the dropship's engines cycled down, Soldier: 76 and Ghost walked down the stairs in the main hold of the dropship and gathered their gear.

"Alright, we've landed." Winston said walking down the stairs toward the two men with Tracer closely following. "I would prefer if one of us went with you."

"One day, maybe, but for now, we can't afford to compromise our safe house locations." Ghost said as he spun his pistol on his index finger and holstered it. "Even if we're allies."

"Keep a low profile. The last thing we need is people questioning why there's an Overwatch dropship in the middle of nowhere." 76 said, strapping his Heavy Pulse Rifle to his back. "If we're not back by nightfall, take off without us and head back to base." As he finished the door opened with a hiss and the old soldier walked out without another word. As they watched him walk out, Ghost turned back toward Winston and Tracer.

"You know, I really think he's starting to warm up to you guys." Ghost said and with that, walked off to follow his partner. Once they were gone, the dropship door closed and the two Overwatch agents just sighed. Winston then turned to Tracer and spoke up.

"So what have you learned from about our new friends?"

"Not much. I learned James's name and that he's the last surviving member of his family. He's very nice once you get to know him, although he can be a bit sarcastic at times." Tracer said with a smile before frowning a bit. "As for Soldier, I learned next to nothing except that he's less cold once you get to know him, according to James." Winston just grunted. As much as he wanted to trust the two men they had brought along, he was having a hard time with the lack of information he had on both. He knew next to nothing about their goals and with the past news reports about Soldier breaking into several former Overwatch bases and bombing corporate building offices and financial institutions, he was starting to doubt the decision to accept them without having them on a short leash. It'll depend on what happens if they returned.

Outside, Soldier: 76 and Ghost were quickly making their way to their safe house. The travel was quiet for the two soldiers, which wasn't normal but this time, the silence between them now was different. It was more of an awkward silence between the two. As the silence got to a point of being almost unbearable, 76 spoke up.

"James, about what happened."

"If you're going to say your sorry, don't worry about it. I've already forgiven you." Ghost said turning toward the older soldier. "We're all entitled to a few nightmares, you especially considering what you've survived through. Just next time, try not to almost kill me when you wake up from one." 76 just looked at Ghost in disbelief for a few moment before nodding his head and kept moving, glad he wasn't losing a friend.

The trip went by a lot quicker as they found a vehicle that clearly hadn't seen seen any use in a awhile. After a few hours of travelling empty roads and passed what seemed like endless fields of gold cornstalks and green plants, they turned down an old dirt road to that lead to their home base. It was an old farm, having been abandoned for a few years before being purchased by James using a false ID and silver tongue to convince to them to accept cash as payment for the plot of land. It took a few hours and quite a bit of charm to avoid giving out too many details but in the end, James was successful and the farm was theirs. To Soldier: 76, the farm was more than base or hideout, but a place of old memories as well, both bitter and happy. At the moment, however, both were just happy to be home.

As they approached the farm house, they caught sight of someone sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair. It was a elderly woman with an eye patch and hood, her silver hair neatly braided over her shoulder. She seemed to be enjoying the sunny weather and quiet scenery with a cup of tea. Next to her on the small table was a letter and a rifle that leaned on the table, a prototype that never got fully developed due to Overwatch shutting down. As the vehicle came to halt and the two men stepped out, she opened her eyes to observe them.

"Hey, mama bear! I didn't know you were back." The younger of the two men called out with a smile as he stepped out of the truck and removed his mask.

"James, its good to see you too." She responded. " Jack, its good to see you as well. Its nice to see that you're able to handle a mission without getting yourself into trouble." She teased her old commander. James gave the older woman a hug before walking into the house to retrieve his gear. She had quickly taken to caring for the younger man as if he was family not long after they had met and James had started viewing her as motherly figure soon after.

"Glad to see you too, Ana. Did you find out what you needed?" Soldier: 76 asked as he removed his mask.

"I found out where my Fareeha is stationed and I got my hands on her last mission report." Ana said with a sigh. "A god A.I. breaking its quarantine is troubling. If I had known when we were still in Giza, I would have stepped in. Helix barely was able to quarantine Anubis. And With Hakim and Reyes working with Talon..." Ana paused for a moment. "I'm worried for my daughter, Jack." Jack could only sigh. He knew how much Fareeha meant to Ana. "This fight has become to big for just the three of us."

"Well then its a good thing its not just the three of us anymore." James said as he rejoined the conversation, his rifle strapped to his back.

"What are you talking about? What did you two get yourselves into?" Ana asked looking at James then over to Jack. Jack just looked at James and nodded for the younger man to explain.

"Well, we went on a supply run to Watchpoint Gibraltar to check if there were any supplies and well, we stumbled on the newly reformed Overwatch. We tried sneaking out of the base but they spotted the commander here and after me punching Genji in the faceplate and tripping McCree and Jack beating up a handful of agents that have been slacking on training, we were surrounded and forced to surrender." James said with a sigh. "So I brokered up a deal with Winston and got him to agree not to turn us in if we help Overwatch get back on its feet."

"So we're part of Overwatch again?" Ana asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"Not exactly. More like a temporary alliance. Overwatch doesn't trust us, as much as they like to say otherwise. Most of them see us as criminals and won't hesitate to turn us in if we make any wrong moves." Jack said. Ana sighed as uncrossed her arms.

"Give me a few minutes to pack a few things." Ana said as she turned to walk into the house.

"Ana, you don't have to come with us. They don't know about you." Jack said.

"I know, Jack, but someone has to watch your back when James can't." With that, Ana picked up her rifle and walked into the house to pack her things. James and Jack both looked at each other and shrugged and before following her inside to make sure they had everything they needed to make before making the return the trip.

After about 20 minutes, the three had everything they need and met up outside. Each had a bag that held equipment needed to maintain their gear as well as a bag that contain extra clothes. They knew it would be awhile before they could all go home again so they pack all the necessities and then some.

"Everyone ready?" Jack asked. James and Ana nodded. "Before we leave, I want you both to know that you're both free to take off your masks and tell the people in Overwatch who you are. There are a lot of old friends and familiar faces in Overwatch now." Jack said, more directed to Ana but it still had some meaning to James. James just nodded again while Ana looked over to the table and picked up the letter she had written earlier.

"Do you mind if we stop somewhere first. I have to send something to my daughter." Ana asked as she looked at the closed letter. Agreeing to the request, Jack reequipped his mask and once again donned the identity of Soldier: 76. James followed in suit and once again became Ghost. Ana watched the two men and with smile she put on her mask as well. Unlike the masks of Ghost and Soldier: 76, her mask covered her entire face and had the three blue lines that formed an upside down triangle in the center of it. With all their identities concealed, they quickly said goodbye to their home as they entered the truck and made their way to back.

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 _A few hours later_

"Are they back yet?" Tracer asked as she laid on the couch. They've been gone for so long." The hyperactive British woman did not do well with sitting down in one spot for extended periods of time due to how easily she got bored.

"No. They've only been gone for about 5 hours. They still have quite awhile before nightfall." Winston said as he flipped to the next page of the book on theoretical physics. While he didn't agree with it, he had fully expected this to happen even before they landed. He had a feeling that they would have them land as far away from their safe house as possible but still be close enough to get there and back within reasonable time. "Why don't you run another system check on the ship?"

"I've done that three times already." Tracer said as she leaned against the table. "Can't I go off to the nearby town for a bit? I'll be back before they are."

"No, you're too recognizable. We were told to lay low and not get spotted." Winston replied as he read the next page. Tracer only groaned in boredom.

"Where are those wankers, anyways?" Tracer complained once more as she turned toward the open door. She had done nearly everything she possibly could on the ship. Basketball held her attention for a while but after succeeding in every trick shot she could come up with, she quickly lost interest. She had Athena run a system diagnostic multiple time in which the A.I. reported nothing new each time. She had even organized and straightened all of the containers and their contents. Twice.

"Well that's not a very nice thing to say." A voice said, causing both agents to jump. With a chuckle, Ghost reappeared in next to Tracer. A moment later, Soldier: 76 and another masked person came on board.

"We're ready to move." 76 nodded at the gorilla. Winston nodded back and closed his book. Once everyone was aboard, the ship's engines began spinning up as the door closed.

"So who may this be?" Winston asked as he got up to greet the masked woman. The three hesitated as Ana hadn't fully decided if she wanted to reveal herself so soon. The silence was quickly broken by Ghost in small panic once he noticed no one else was answering.

"This is..uh" He stopped for a use the first thing that popped into his head. "Shrike." Everyone turned to face him and Ghost quickly felt his face heat up in embarrassment. Wanting to get out of the spotlight as fast as possible, he quickly cloaked and escaped to cockpit, leaving 76 and Ana to deal with the aftermath.

"Well its nice to meet you, uh, Shrike. I'm sure you'll be a useful addition to the team." Winston held out his hand to her.

"Its nice to see you again, Winston. And please call me, Janina." The older woman said taking Winston's much larger hand and shaking it. Winston was confused by the statement and it showed on his face which caused her to chuckle. "I use to work for Overwatch, like you. You have grown so much since I last saw you. I remember when we first recruited you after you arrived on Earth." Under her mask, Ana smiled fondly at the memories and the gorilla. He was always so kind and innocent, never wanting to resort to bloodshed. While Ana didn't want to lie to the gorilla, she knew that if she were to reveal herself now then it would be easy to connect the dots and figure out Soldier's identity.

"O-oh! Well in that case it'll be great to work with you again." Winston said nervously. Tracer blinked over and greeted the woman as well and Ana chuckled ad commented about how little the young British woman had changed since they last met causing the younger woman to blush. With greetings out of the way, Ana and Soldier: 76 took their seats around the table and began checking over their gear while Winston took a seat and the continued reading. Tracer made her way to the cockpit and found Ghost strapped into the co-pilot seat talking to a holographic projection of Athena. When he noticed Tracer walking up the stairs, he ended the conversation and turned to face the young British woman.

"What were you two talking about?" Tracer asked with a smile.

"Nothing important. Just cross referencing your intel with ours. So how was waiting?" Ghost replied, closing a few windows on his tactical pad.

"Absolutely the worse. How far did you two go?"

"Oh not far. We just stopped off to eat, take in the sights, make a couple of crop circles, send some mail, you know, the sorts." Ghost chuckled while Tracer lightly shoved him and took a seat in the pilot seat.

"No really, where did you go?" Tracer asked. Ghost stopped to think for a moment before answering.

"Home. Its gonna be awhile until we can go back so we grabbed what we might need for this adventure." Ghost said grabbing his rifle and patted the side of it. The dark gray rifle was a custom standard issue Overwatch pulse rifle, much like the pulse rifle Strike-Commander Morrison use to use back in the Golden Age of Overwatch except it lacked the rocket launcher underbarrel attachment. It also sported a hexagonal pattern skin, something that was also visible on the Ghost's sidearm as well.

"Why do both of your guns have that pattern?" Tracer asked noticing the same pattern on both his weapons.

"Hm? Oh, hexagon skin of the weapons reacts to the cloaking field my armor uses and amplifies it so it affects the weapons as well. That way the weapon is invisible when I cloak. That and I think it looks cool." Ghost explained as he watch Tracer take the control of the dropship and guide them above the clouds. He had discovered earlier that day that he loved watching Tracer at the controls and how fluid her hands were as they moved about the console. Once they were at cruising attitude, she let auto pilot take control and she turned back to Ghost.

"So I have question for you."

"Alright, shoot."

"Does everyone who works with you wear a mask or something?" Tracer asked, referencing Ana. The question made Ghost laugh. "What? I'm being serious." His laugh quickly faded and he answered the question.

"No, as far as I know, we're the only ones who wear masks." James debated if he wanted to take off his mask and show her his face but ultimately decided it was still a little too early for that, even if she wouldn't recognize him.

"Do you ever plan on taking the masks off?"

"We take our masks off plenty."

"I meant around us."

"In that case, then we will eventually." He answered. His response was met with a small pout from Tracer, which got another laugh out of Ghost. "How about this, when I decide to take off my mask, you'll be the first to see. Deal?"

Tracer just stared at him and sighed in defeat. "Fine." Before they could talk about anything else, 76 called Ghost over to the holotable so they could talk about their next move. The pair made their way to the holotable where the rest of the occupants of the craft were gathered. He could already see images of King's Row and Ilios hovering over the table.

"So what are we discussing at the big kid's table?" Ghost asked as he leaned against the table.

"We're figure out what Talon could be planning at both of these locations." 76 said as he selected an image of King's Row and Ilios, Greece, and expanded them.

"King's Row is obvious. The location has always been a hotspot for tension between humans and Omnics, especially since the death of Tekhartha Mondatta, and its only getting worse. Constant protests, small scale riots, open clashes with the police, the place is a powder keg and all Talon has to do is light the match. The worse part is local authorities don't even seem slightly interested in trying to stop them. Our contact in King's Row said that Talon was using a dropship to insert and extract Widowmaker meaning they either have some amazing stealth tech or local authorities are letting them go unchallenged. So the real question here is when and how they plan on starting the war." Ghost said as he just laid out all the information they had gathered on the growing situation in King's Row. As he spoke, he brought up images to show his point. "As for Ilios, you got me there. Best guess 76 and I were able to come up with was either there's a HVT in the area that Talon is hoping to eliminate or there's something of some kind of value that they want." No one disagreed with the information and assumptions given to them by the younger soldier. The information was sound and the assumptions were right within Talon's MO.

"The next thing we have to worry about are these two." Winston said pulling up images of Reaper and Widowmaker. "These two are Talon's most effective operatives. They go by Reaper and Widowmaker. Tracer and I have had run ins with both. Tracer did her best to stop Widowmaker before she could assassinate Tekhartha Mondatta but unfortunately she was successful." Tracer seemed to look down a bit in shame when hearing about her failure to stop Widowmaker. "I had my first encounter with the mercenary Reaper when he and a squad of Talon soldiers tried raiding my network to get the names and locations of all the other Overwatch agents at Watchpoint Gibraltar." Everyone looked up in surprise upon hearing about Reaper's raid on location they are currently using as a base. "The next encounter we had with them was at the Overwatch museum where they tried to steal the Doomfist gauntlet but we were able to stop them."

"Yeah and from what I saw circulating the internet and media, the world is aware Overwatch is back." Ghost said. Ghost cleared off the images of King's Row and Ilios and brought up images of polls taken form multiple sources asking the public about how they felt about Overwatch being back. While there was some disapproval about the return of the once beloved organization, most of the public was unsure about how they felt about the issue.

"Public opinion aside for the moment, we need to find a way to deal with these two. Do you have knowledge that could help us combat them? Anything you know would be helpful." In truth, Winston had a fair bit of knowledge about the Reaper and way he operated from his two encounters with the man and had a general idea about Widowmaker and her MO from the recalled accounts from Tracer and his own personal experience. This was more of a test to see what kind of information the three vigilantes had on the two.

Ghost glance at Soldier: 76 and Ana, unsure how they wanted to proceed. He knew that the two of them knew both Reaper and Widowmaker before they were called that. While Ghost didn't want to leave his allies in the dark, especially when it concerned extremely dangerous enemies, he was willing to lie and just repeat the information Overwatch currently already had on them if neither of them spoke up. However when he saw 76 look over to Ana and saw her nod, he knew he wouldn't have to speak at all. With a heavy sigh, Soldier: 76 spoke.

"Reaper's real name is Gabriel Reyes." As he said that, an image of Reyes's agent profile came up over the table. "Somehow, he survived the destruction of the Swiss HQ and he's been hunting down and eliminating former Overwatch agents. We assume that's why he's working with Talon. He takes out anything that might pose a threat to Talon and they give him information, locations, operatives, and equipment to take out Overwatch agents. He's been actively hunting a few Overwatch agents in particular but who they are has yet to be seen." 76 knew that it wasn't all the information they had on Reyes but he couldn't afford to give away anything that might lead to his cover being compromised. Not yet, anyways. More importantly, he knew had to give them something if they were to start trusting them, especially with them bring Ana along now.

"Widowmaker was formerly known as Amelie Lacroix, before Talon got their hands on her." Ana said next. "We don't know what happened in the weeks she was gone but when Overwatch agents found her, they assumed she was fine. Two weeks later, we found her husband, Gerard, dead." Both her and 76 looked down out of sadness and regret as they recall how they found their old friend. "We assume she had died as well but unfortunately that wasn't the case. She ended up with Talon again." Winston could only sigh. Soldier: 76 stayed quiet. He remembered first meeting the young woman and how happy her and Gerard were. When he heard of the fate that had befallen her, he could only imagine the pain it would have caused her husband. The table went quiet after that. No one wanted to continue the conversation but unfortunately they had to.

"We need to gather information on the situation on both locations. What are our options?" Soldier: 76 asked. It was moments like this where he easily fell back into the command role and while he didn't initially like the position, he felt comfortable giving the orders.

"We have a contact in London that we can call to keep an eye on the situation." Ghost said. "He's the son of a former Overwatch agent. He's been observing the situation for awhile there. As for Ilios, if we can get someone in that area, I can send over the drones I 'borrowed' from HSI. What about Overwatch? What assets do you have in the area of both objectives."

"We have none in London. Lena was a resident agent there. Same thing goes for Ilios. However, I can have one of our agents reassigned to monitor the situation there. We just have to give them a few days to get there and set up." Winston answered.

"Alright then, in the mean time, I want eyes and ears on the ground in King's Row. Athena, will we have enough fuel to redirect to King's Row and get back to Watchpoint Gibraltar?"

"Affirmative, Soldier: 76."

"Redirect to London." Soldier ordered. "Lena, once we get close to the city, take over the controls and bring us in fast and low. Once we hit the outskirts of the city, slow the ship enough for one of us to get out then get the hell out of here."

"You got it." Tracer saluted. "Who are we dropping off?" Soldier was about to answer when someone beat him to it.

"Me." Everyone turned to look at the one who spoke, Ghost. "What? Besides Shrike, I'm the most qualified for this and Shrike has to be here to watch over 76. That's her purpose of being here."

"Are you sure about this?" 76 asked.

"Absolutely. Plus, I've been meaning to go back to London."

"Alright. Everyone else, once we get back, get ready to make a move on either location. Dismissed." Soldier: 76 authoritatively. With that the group quickly dispersed. No one questioned why he giving out orders. To everyone, including the two Overwatch agents, it just felt right. With the meeting over, everyone went back to doing what they were doing prior to the meeting.

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 _Hours later, Less than 5 minutes away from drop point_

"Approaching the drop point." Athena announced. "Agent Ghost, are you ready?"

"No but its a little late to back down now." Ghost said as he got out of the co-pilot seat. Tracer, who was sitting in the pilot seat, glanced at him as he got up.

"James." She called out making him turn. "Stay safe, okay?"

"Of course. I'll see you soon." Ghost said with a smile and quickly went down to the main hold to get into position. As he got down there, Winston gave him a nod and went up to join Tracer in the cockpit. As Ghost was making sure his weapons and equipment were strapped down properly, 76 and Ana approached in him.

"James, are you sure about this?" 76 asked one last time.

"I'll be fine, 76. I've run solo ops before. I'll contact you once I've arrived at or established a safe house."

"Alright. Stay safe our there." 76 said.

"Always." Ghost said. "Ana, keep him safe. Don't want anything happening into our commander." He said in a voice low enough for only them to hear.

"Of course, James. We'll see you soon. Good luck." Ana said with a nod. As she said that, the door behind him opened.

"Arriving at drop point alpha." Athena announced.

"Show time." Ghost said turning on his heel and walking over to the end of the lowered door. Without a word, Ghost dropped down to the ground below, disappearing from sight before he hit the ground. "This is Ghost. Commencing recon operation." With that the door closed and the dropship picked up speed, heading back to Watchpoint Gibraltar.

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. I apologize for taking this long to update. Thank you so much for reading this chapter. Hope you guys are enjoying it. Things have been rather dull for the past couple of chapters so I'm hoping to get things moving soon. I'll to get the next chapter up sooner than this one but no promises.**

 **So what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Leave a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more your thing.  
**

 **Anyways, thanks again for reading and remember, have a great day.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N**

 **Hello everybody. Thank you for reading this story. I would have never had the motivation to continue the story if it weren't for all of you. Now, onto the disclaimer.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard entertainment and its respective developers. All I own are a few characters and the plot of the story.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _King's Row, London, England_

Moving through the streets of London at night wasn't an easy task, even for Ghost. With protests almost every night, the streets of King's Row were packed with humans and Omnics alike. At the moment, Ghost's first goal was to establish a safe house and then make contact with their contact in London. It wasn't the first time Ghost and Soldier: 76 had worked with the man. They had dealt with him a few times prior to this in different countries but since then he had moved to London for the same reason Ghost was there now. Noticing that the timer on his cloak was about to run out, Ghost quickly scaled the side of the building using some tricks he had learned from when he was younger. Once he got to the top, he noticed a man with black armor that looked similar to the old Blackwatch armor, leaning against the ledge. He had a submachine gun leaned against the wall next to him and had a couple of devices strapped to the backpack that laid next to him as well. It took him a moment to register who the man was but when he did, he realized it was his contact.

"Ironwood." Ghost said, uncloaking behind the man.

"Ghost." Ironwood said turning around, unfazed by the sudden appearance of the cloaked man. "What brings you to London, business or pleasure?"

"Business, unfortunately." Ghost said with a sigh. He walked next to man and leaning against the wall. From the top of the building, he could see a protest in the street below with people and Omnics chanting and yelling in the street while riot police stood ready in front of the protesters. "I assume you know why I'm here?"

"Yeah, because of the photo I sent you and Old man 76." He said. "Is he here, by the way?"

"No, just me. If we stumble upon something that bigger than the both of us, I'll call in the cavalry." Ghost said. "So what do we go-." Ghost stopped as he heard some climb up on the roof they were on. Glancing back, Ghost could see it was a young woman wearing a salvaged and repainted Talon chest piece with elbow and knee pads to match. On her back was a standard issue military carbine and a pistol holster was attached to the front of her chest piece. She has brown hair light brown hair tied into a ponytail that stuck out of the back of a cap and sunglasses that sat on top of her cap, letting her light brown eyes show. She didn't seem to have noticed Ghost standing there when she spoke up.

"Hey Adam, I checked out the abandoned warehouse at the edge of the district and -" The young woman said as looked up and saw the two men. "YOU!" She said loudly as soon as she recognized Ghost, drawing her pistol from its holster and aiming it right at his head. "What are you doing here?!" She asked before looking at Ironwood. "What is he doing here?!"

"Calm down, V." Ironwood said. "He's a friend." He turned toward Ghost. "Should I even ask how you know Victoria?"

"I'll tell you the whole story later. Short version is a group of us were hired to escort an HVT. We were successful but we were the only two of the group that survived."

"Yeah and then you proceeded to shoot the guy who hired us before we could pay us." Victoria said, still pointing a pistol at Ghost and pressed it harder against his skull.

"Only because he drew a gun on us and tried to kill us." Ghost said looking back at the young woman. "And you didn't get paid, I made sure to get paid at least half for accepting the other half was automatically transferred upon completion of the mission."

"I still want my cut." She said quietly as she lowered her weapon.

"Yeah well unless you feel like holding a seance, I don't your gonna get that money, not like there's any money left to take." Ghost said, mumbling the last part. "Anyways, I need to get to establish a safe house so I'll be on my way." Ghost said as he turned to vault over the ledge. Before he could leave, Ironwood stopped him.

"Wait." Both of them looked back at Ironwood. "Since we're gonna be working together, you might as well crash with us."

"Are you sure about that? I can find my own location."

"Yeah, I'm sure. Besides, things are picking up around here so it'll be better if we stay together." Ironwood said. Victoria wanted to object to having some random mercenary temporarily living with them but knew it won't change his mind.

"Alright. I'll take you up on your offer." Ghost said. "Lead the way." Ironwood nodded while Victoria scoffed at him as the trio made their way to their current resident.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _Watchpoint: Gibraltar, The Rock of Gibraltar_

It had been a few hours since the dropship had landed back at Watchpoint: Gibraltar. A few members of Overwatch were there to gathered to greet them as they landed and were curious to say the least when they saw Ana. After explaining that she was one of Soldier: 76's partners, they quickly began giving her plenty of space. However, a certain Overwatch doctor notice of her, more specifically, her rifle. Once she saw she was alone, Mercy approached the older woman.

"Doctor Ziegler, how are you, my dear?" Ana said as she noticed the younger woman approach.

"I'm fine, Miss..." Mercy trailed off. She was unsure who she was but the woman clearly knew her from somewhere and was quite fond of her. It almost made her feel guilty for not remembering her.

"Janina Kowalska but please call me Janina." Ana said giving Mercy the fake name she had given the doctors who had treated her after her "death" at the hands of Widowmaker. "I apologize about the mask but when working with Soldier: 76, you grow accustom to wearing one." Ana said as the two started walking together.

"I understand and please, call me Angela." Mercy said, remembering her less than exciting conversation with the soldier. "I actually wanted to ask you about that rifle and how you came to acquire it."

"You've never shown any interest in weaponry before, Angela. You were always against violence."

"I still am but that rifle was a prototype that I had a hand in as means to deliver medical aid without bringing the user into danger. I never wanted this prototype or my inventions to be weaponized and the project was shutdown when Overwatch was." Mercy said. Ana had a feeling that Angela had a hand in this and very few people had access to her nanites technology. With a sigh, Ana responded.

"I got it from a Helix Security convey that was ambushed by a group of terrorist while in the Middle East. I was able to scare off the attackers before they could take anything but the Helix personnel had all died before I could help them. When I saw the cargo the convoy was carrying Overwatch equipment, I grabbed what I could and scuttled the convoy before they could return. If it makes you feel better, I've only ever used it to help people. I've been using darts filled with a type of venom that when administer to someone who is inoculated to it, will receive all of the positive effects of it and none of the negative. However, to those not inoculated, it has a much more harmful effect to them." Ana explained. Mercy seemed smile a bit at hearing this. While she was against the construction of the weapon entirely, she was happy to see it had gotten into the hands of someone dedicated to helping people.

"Thank you, Janina. I am glad it has made its way into good hands and is being used to help people."

"Of course, Angela. The innocent need to be protected." Ana said with a smile. Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, Ana glanced over and saw it was Soldier: 76 walking toward them. Mercy seemed to have noticed it to and looked over at the Soldier: 76 as he stopped by them.

"Can I talk to you?" 76 said.

"It seems our time has come to an end for now. We'll talk more later." Mercy said, turning to leave.

"He wasn't talking to me, my dear." Mercy stopped and looked back. She noticed that Soldier was looking at her, waiting for her response.

"O-oh." She stumbled over her words for a moment before regaining her composer, not expecting him to want to talk to her. "Of course, 76. What seems to be the concern? Are you injured?"

"No, I just wanted to talk." 76 said. He could feel Ana grinning at him through his mask and it was making him nervous, almost as if he was asking a girl out on a date in from of mother. "Is there anywhere we can talk more privately?" He could have swore heard Ana giggle under her mask.

"Of course. We can talk in my office." Mercy continued walking to her office unsure what to make of the sudden change in behavior in 76. 76, on the other hand, turned to Ana.

"Stay on comms and alert me if James tries to make contact." Ana nodded and walked off to look around and see who else she recognized and how much have they changed. 76 quickened his pace slightly to see catch up with Mercy and once he did, he easily fell into step with her. The walk was quiet as both didn't exactly know how to begin the conversation with the other. Jack mentally berated himself for getting himself into the situation without any means of getting out while Mercy was still trying to figure out Soldier: 76 and why he suddenly wanted to speak with her. Realizing neither were getting anywhere with their current line of thought, both let out a small huff of frustration. Finally, Mercy broke the silence as they were approaching the building.

"May I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Why did ask to speak with me?" She asked. "When we talked during the medical examination, you seemed less than interested in talking to me."

"Two reasons. Winston suggested I tried talking to people since no one trusts me or my team. So I agreed and you seemed to be the easiest to approach and talk to." Mercy expected something like that but it still surprised her. What she wasn't expecting was the off hand compliment, which made her smile. Walking into her office, Mercy took a seat at her desk while 76 sat in front of her.

"So what do you want to talk about?"

"I was hoping you would have some ideas, doc. I haven't had many social interactions outside of my team so my social skills are a little rusty."

"Alright, why don't you tell me a little about yourself so I can get a better judge of who you are." Mercy asked. 76 sighed. He should have expected this. With how little they knew about him, they were bound to be curious and take every opportunity to gather information on him.

"Alright. My name is first name is John." He wasn't lying, not to her. He may leave out parts of the truth but he refused to lie to her, partially due to a promise he had made her back when they were still dating. "Grew up in a rural America until I left to fight in the Omnic Crisis. After the Omnic Crisis, I joined up with Overwatch." 76 said. Mercy was actually surprised about complete sudden cooperation. It was almost a complete one-eighty from the last time she had spoken with. Listening him as he spoke, she realized he never mentioned how he end up in the mask. Once he had finished, she began to asked her questions.

"So what lead you to wear a mask?" Mercy asked. She had formulating theories in her head when she first laid eyes on him, trying to figure out why he and his team all wore masks but that was all she had, theories. With a heavy sigh, 76 answered the question.

"I was at the Overwatch Headquarters when the base went up in smoke." Almost instinctively, Mercy's hand went to her chest and gripped something under her shirt, presumably a necklace. "When Strike-Commander Morrison figured out what was happening, he ordered a full evacuation and we had fought to secure a route for the non-combat personnel to escape then we went after the rebelling Blackwatch members." He noticed her grip tighten as he told the story. "We caught up to them and the fighting spread across the base as we fought to deny them access to databanks, weapons, prototypes, anything they could use to against Overwatch. In the end, it didn't matter. The fighting between the Strike-Commander and Commander resulted in the base's core being compromised and the entire base exploding." 76 said as he recalled the events of that fateful night. He couldn't meet Mercy's eyes as he told the story. When he managed to build up the courage to look at the young woman, what he saw only made him feel worse. In front of him, Mercy's blue eyes filled with tears as she remembered the night when the search and rescue team told her the news of Jack Morrison. She had cried for hours and refused to believe them, stating that he had promised her that he would never leave her. It wasn't until they presented her with Jack Morrison's dog tags was she forced to accept the fact that he was gone. It almost broke the younger woman. If it weren't for her friends that showed up to comfort her, she wasn't sure what would have happened to her. Soldier wanted nothing more to take off his mask and tell her he was there and that everything would be okay but he knew it would only make it worse. All he could do was out a comforting hand on her shoulder and mourn with her. After about a couple of minutes, Mercy finally had calmed down enough to speak without her voice faltering too much.

"I-I apologize. I lost many close friends that day." Mercy said, wiping a tear from her eyes with the back of her hand. "Can you give me a moment?" 76 nodded and walked out the room. Once he was down the hall, he slammed his fist against the wall, cursing for making her cry. For the past few years, he told himself that she had probably have moved on but this had only served to prove him wrong. Leaning against the wall, he slid down to the floor with a heavy heart. He didn't know what to do. His thoughts were interrupted when his radio beeped. Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, he pressed his radio.

"Soldier here."

"Jack, its Ana. James just checked in. He wants to talk to you first then he wants to link Winston into the call."

"Copy, patch him in." After a few moments of silence, the faint sound of arguing could be heard in the background followed by a groan which sounded closer to the radio. "James."

"Oh, Commander, sorry. Adam is arguing with his new partner. She's not fond of me."

"Is she going to pose a threat to the mission?"

"Threat, no. Minor obstacle, possible. I'll work on trying to get along with her. Anyway, I'm calling to tell you that I've taken up residence with Adam and his partner in their home, his idea, and to tell you and Winston that Adam would probably make an excellent recruit for Overwatch since we're trying to expand our numbers." Ghost said, glancing back to make sure the other to people weren't listening in. Luckily, both were still arguing. "His partner, a mercenary woman by the name of Victoria, no last name provided, has the potential to be an effective Overwatch agent as well, you know, with the proper training and everything." 76 took a moment to think about it. Two new Overwatch agents would be beneficial. He was well aware of Ironwood's abilities and if he was still in charge, Ironwood would have made an great agent in his eyes but it wasn't his decision to make. Not anymore.

"Alright. I'll contact you once I'm with Winston."

"Copy that." With that, the radio died down and Soldier was once again surrounded by silence. Hearing the a door open down the hall, he turned to see Mercy. Her make-up had been removed after being messed up from the few tears that got free. Noticing 76, she walked over to him as he got up. "Are you okay now, doc?"

"Much better, thank you. I'm sorry to have to cut this conversation short but I got a call from the training room that a couple of agents got too rough while training and injured themselves." Mercy said with a small smile as she grabbed a med-kit. "If you don't mind, I would like to continue this conversation later."

"It would be my pleasure." Mercy's smile brighten a bit as she walked toward the exit, Soldier a few feet behind her. Once outside, the two said their goodbyes and head their own separate ways. On his way, he met up with Ana and the two made their way to Winston's lab.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _Ironwood's safe house, London, England_

Ghost listen to the two other occupants of the house as they argued about their next move as he set up a secure video connection to Watchpoint Gibraltar. From what he had witnessed, the two argued about damn near everything. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought they were siblings or married from how often they argued. Once he was finished, Ghost dusted off his hands and looked back at the two arguing.

"Our last lead was a dead end. We need to get back out there and start find new leads."

"I realized that but where do we start? The warehouse we followed that Talon operative to turned out to be empty. For all we know, they could be on to us. We have to be careful with what we do."

"Well we can't just stay here and do nothing. We have to do something."

"Ladies, ladies, you're both beautiful." Ghost interrupted as he stood up. "For now, can shift our attention for a little bit?" Both Adam and Victoria looked at temporary Overwatch agent with curiosity and a bit of annoyance for being interrupted. "Adam, what's the one thing we wanted to do but never got the chance?"

"Join Overwatch but they were shut down six years ago." Adam answered.

"Promise to keep this a secret, both of you?"

"Alright, not like I can tell anyone without getting arrested myself for being a vigilante." Adam said. Both looked at Victoria, waiting for her response.

"Fine but this not be a waste of my time."

"Great. Well, what if I told you that it was still possible to join Overwatch and that they are in desperate need of recruits." Ghost looked at the two trying to get a feel of how they would react based on their facial expressions. After a couple of seconds of silence, Adam spoke up first.

"I'd say you were crazy but you've also caught my interest so continue."

"Remember the news broadcast about the return of Overwatch were they did that survey to see how the public felt about it?" Ghost asked and both of them nodded. "Unknown to them, Overwatch is back. They sent out a recall for all agents to return to active duty and check in."

"Wait, how do you know this?" Victoria asked. Ghost just pressed a few things on his tac-pad and on the screen, his Overwatch recall message was displayed.

"My dad was an Overwatch agent and he was still connected to the Overwatch network when he gave me his armor before he died last year. Earlier this year, I got this. I chose to ignore it because I wasn't one of their agents and I'm pretty sure they won't have reacted well to me posing as one of their agents even if that agent was my father." Ghost explain, careful not to tell them that he was part of said organization just yet. The other two stayed silent after hearing the explanation for a few moments until Adam spoke up.

"So why are you telling us?" Adam asked

"Couple of reasons. Main reason is that both of you, in my opinion, would make excellent agents with a little bit of extra training so I figured-" A beeping interrupted Ghost. "Hold up." Bring his finger up to the radio, he answered the call. "Ghost here."

"Ghost, it's Soldier. I'm with Winston and explained to him the situation. We're ready when you are."

"Copy that. Give me a minute." Ghost said. Looking back the two mercenaries, he turned his attention to them. "So what to do you guys think? Are you guy willing to hear this through?" Ghost waited for a moment before getting a response.

"Yeah, sure. Not like I have anything to lose." Adam said.

"Might as well." Victoria responded. "Beside, always did want to be a part of Overwatch." Ghost smiled behind his mask and pressed a few things on his wrist mounted device. The screen by him came to life as a secure connection was established. Once established, the image of Winston sitting in front of the computer and Soldier: 76 leaning against the wall appeared on the screen.

"Ah, there you are." Winston said as he saw the image of the Ghost and the two mercenaries appeared on his terminal. Soldier: 76 looked up as soon as he hear this and got off the wall and walked closer. "I assume everything is going well in King's Row?"

"As well as things can go. I've taken up residence with the two 76 told you about. Want to meet them?"

"Please, by all means." Winston said. Ghost motioned for the two other occupants of the house to step forward. With both of them in full view, Winston took a moment to examine them to and get an idea of what they would be like before actually speaking to them. After a minute of silence, he spoke up.

"So you're the ones who are sheltering Ghost." Winston said, still examining them. "Thank you for that. Not many would do that for another person."

"It was no trouble. I've worked with him and 76 for a while and they've saved my life on more occasions than I'm willing to admit." Adam said, earning him a chuckle from Ghost.

"Now I'm sure you've figured out why your standing there talking to me. Our agent has informed me that you would be an excellent addition to Overwatch. While I or any other senior members of Overwatch cannot be there to personally assess your abilities, consider this a trial run. Help Ghost complete his mission and if all things go well, we'll extract you as well when stop by to pick up Ghost and will give you an assessment on your abilities at our base." Both Adam and Victoria agreed, still some disbelief stirred within about the idea of joining the once beloved organization. "For now, why don't I just start with asking you both some questions." Winston said. "What makes you want to join Overwatch?" Both of them stilled and thought about the question. Overwatch was the one thing most kids of their generations wanted to be part of, from James to Victoria to Adam, all them had dreams of joining Overwatch. Finally, Adam spoke up.

"I guess its because I'm like James. Our fathers were part of Overwatch before it collapsed. They instilled into us the values and morals that Overwatch was based on. All we ever wanted to do was join Overwatch growing up and we were going through the recruitment process but Overwatch was shut down and UN troops rounded us and the other recruits up and brought us home before we could even finished our training or could be put into the database." Adam answered. "We all grew up surrounded up by Overwatch, its stories, its deeds. You can say its all we've ever known." Winston listened to ever word the young man said. He spoke well and more importantly, he had just proven he had information on at least one of soldier's Overwatch had formed an alliance with. Winston allowed his gaze to shift from the two recruits to the Overwatch agent in the room with, who seemed to noticed the shift in attention and shrugged.

"Alright, what about you?" Winston asked, looking at Victoria.

"I'm not like either of them. Neither of my parents worked for Overwatch, my mother is doctor and my father was soldier during the Omnic Crisis. I grew up listening to stories about Overwatch and always dreamed of joining but besides that all I can offer are my skills as a field medic and a soldier and my life." Victoria said with complete honesty. Winston nodded his head and for the next hour continued to question the two.

In the end, Winston concluded that both had what it takes to join Overwatch, at least mentally and morally. They cared about the lives of other people when they're on combat operation and take the precautions to minimize the loss of civilian life. More importantly, they understood that if they joined Overwatch, they would be part of a family that looked out for one another. Once the two had finished, Winston called Ghost forward.

"Thank you bringing them to my attention, I'm sure they'll make excellent additions to Overwatch. I can't wait to see what they can do in person."

"No problem. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"Actually, yes." Winston responded. "On the flight back, Soldier: 76, Janina, and I were discussing how to better integrate you three into Overwatch and to gain the other's trust."

"Alright, so what's that got to do with me?"

"Out of the three of you, the other agents are the least intimidated by you because they've seen the way you interact with Lena."

"I'm not going to like this, aren't I?"

"No but it was you that got us here so now you have to deal with the consequences." Soldier said from behind Winston.

"Oh boy, what did I get myself into?" Ghost asked.

"Winston suggested it and we agreed with him. When you get back to base, you're being put in charge of a strike team. The member of your team will be announce once you get back since the Janina and I will be part of another team."

"Please tell me you're joking. You can't seriously want to put me, of all people, in charge of a strike team. The other Overwatch agents trust me as far as they can throw me, which I doubt is very far. What makes you think they're going to take orders from me?"

"As a team leader, its your job to earn their trust and show them that you'll be looking out for them. For now, consider this scouting mission practice for when your in charge of your own team." Ana said.

"Copy that." Ghost said, sighing in defeat. "I better get to planning with my 'team' then. I'll see you guys in a few weeks. Signing of-."

"Oh Winston!" Tracer's voice echo in the garage. A few seconds later, Tracer blinked over the railing and was on Winston's shoulder before the Soldier: 76 and Ana could stop her. "Guess what I found?" It was at that moment she realized the call on the screen. "Oh! Is that James? Hiya, James! Can he hear or see me?"

"I can hear and see you, Lena. Good job on getting everyone back in one piece." Ghost said with a chuckle.

"Thank you. I didn't become the youngest Overwatch pilot because of my looks you know." Tracer said with a giggle. Her attention was soon drawn to the two people now standing in the background, trying to inch their way off screen. "Who are those two behind you? Are those your mates?"

"Something like that. I'll let Winston explain everything later but before we continue, you should probably check with Winston if its alright if you keep using his computer." Ghost said, trying to get the young British girl's attention on the gorilla whose shoulder she was still leaning on. Winston, at that moment, had picked up Tracer by the back of her jacket and set her down. As he looked at the young woman, he could only sigh and agree to let her use the computer to keep talking to Ghost but warned her not to touch anything on his desk or computer, to with she agree and took a seat on the tire Winston used as a seat as soon as the scientist got up. Soldier and Ana left with a nod to Ghost as they followed Winston out of the office and into the garage below.

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. Man, it has been awhile since I had last updated, hasn't it? Anyways, thank you so much for reading this. Really hope you guys enjoyed it. I really am sorry for the delay on this. I've just been spending way too much time pulling all nighters playing video games and getting ready for stuff.**

 **I also apologize for the severe lack of action happening in this story and that in the next chapter, there's gonna be time skip. I want to start getting things moving in this story because I have some ideas I wanna play with.**

 **So what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Leave a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more your style.**

 **Anyways, thanks again for reading and have a great day.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N**

 **Hey everybody. Thanks for reading this story. I'm sure by this point most of you have already completely skipped this author note and I don't blame you so I won't take up anymore of your time. Just wanted to let you know with most major events done and me back in the habit of writing at night. I'll do my best to try to get more chapters out to you guys.**

 **Also someone brought to my attention that something this story is severely lacking is a good villain and they are correct. While Talon is probably the main antagonist for Overwatch in the lore and the story as of the moment, I've haven't really gone into any of the characters that work for Talon or are allied with them. This is for multiple reasons. First off, while I have played with the idea of creating a centralized character within Talon to oppose Overwatch and its allies, I felt that Reaper more than enough fulfills the roll as that character considering what we know about his past actions and strong dislike of Overwatch. Another being Talon isn't the only faction I plan on having in this story to oppose Overwatch. I won't spoil anything but an idea was presented to me by someone and its actually close to the idea I for a new enemy to oppose Overwatch so I hope whoever sent the idea doesn't mind but I plan on adapting the idea to better fit the story and the idea I have planned.** **Now for the disclaimer.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developers. All I own is the plot of this story and some of the characters.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Outskirts of London, two and a half weeks later_

"Are you sure we can go with you? Our mission wasn't exactly a success." Adam asked as they headed to the rendezvous point.

"Sure, I don't see why not. You guys were asked to help me complete my assignment and you did. In my eyes, you did your job and you did your jobs well." Ghost said with a shrug.

"Alright, I guess all we have to hope for is that they don't boot us off the ship." Adam said with a sigh. The three stopped a good distance from the rendezvous point and kept watch. After a few minutes of waiting, the Overwatch dropship quickly descended and landed. As the doors opened, an entire strike team lead by Soldier: 76 and Ana secure a perimeter around the door to the dropship. They were running a big risk doing this. An extraction via dropship in broad daylight was huge security risk.

"That's our cue. Tight formation, watch the surroundings." Ghost said. The other two nodded and got into position. "Let's move out." With that, the three of them made their way to the dropship. One of the Overwatch agents noticed them and called it out.

"I got eyes on three contacts coming in from the north."

"I have them in my sights." 76 said before turning to Ana. "Can you confirm identities?"

"Of course." Ana said she looked down the scope at the three approaching people. "It's them."

"Alright, get ready to pull out once Ghost and his team are on boarded." 76 ordered as Ghost the others closed the distance. As they reached the strike team, Ghost and his team nodded to them and boarded the dropship. 76 tapped the person next to him and one by one they each went up the boarding ramp until they had all had boarded. With everyone on board, the door closed and the ship quickly took off with no one seeing a thing. "Welcome back." 76 said bumping elbows with the younger soldier before they walked over a less populated area of the ship while Adam and Victoria walked off to the side to avoid attention being drawn to them.

"Good to be back." Ghost said as he took off his hood and looked around, noticing the large number of Overwatch agents on board. "Did you really miss me so much that brought everyone for a simple extraction mission?"

"No and this is no longer a simple extraction mission. We're on our way to Ilios to disrupt Talon's operation there."

"So we're not going home." Ghost said. "Well shit. So why are we moving up the time tables? I thought we were still in the observe and intel gathering phase in Ilios considering that Overwatch's agent only got there last week."

"Things have changed. Their observer in Ilios went dark a few days ago and we've been unable to reestablish contact with him."

"So we're assuming he's been compromised. What's the game plan then? This is too many people for a search and recuse op in enemy territory."

"There are three separate plans, one for each strike team." 76 explained. "My team will hitting Talon's main forces at the ruins and stop them from acquiring whatever they're looking for. Winston's team will be deal with Talon's forces over by the well. The location is popular with officers so we're hoping to find some decent intel there from one of the officers. Lastly, your team will be focused on search and recuse in the town near the lighthouse. That was their agent's last known position before he went dark." Ghost groaned when he heard that. He had forgotten that he was placed in charge of the strike team.

"Great. I love babysitting." Ghost said sarcastically. "Anyways, before I forget, here's a copy of the data from the mission in London." Ghost said as he produced a small flash drive from one of his many pockets. "You know, in case something happens to me out in the field or something happens to report I give Winston." 76 took the device and stored it in his pouch. "Well I'll have to talk to you later. I gotta go meet my new squad."

Ghost walked down the stairs from the back of the ship with 76 not far behind and looked over to the holotable where he saw Winston talking to Adam and Victoria. As he was about to walk past, Winston noticed him.

"Ghost, come here for a minute." Winston said. "I saw you and 76 walk over to discuss some things privately so I waited until you were done. Adam and Victoria both gave their reports of your mission. Would you like give me your report now or once we get back to the Watchpoint?"

"Now would probably be a good time." Ghost said with a sigh. "I'll just give you the quick run down of the how the two weeks went. We found nothing, or at least nothing concrete. After my arrival and Victoria's investigation of the warehouse they followed the Talon operative to, all Talon activity in the area went silent. Reasons for this are unknown but its safe to assume that they knew we were on to them. We have a theory of where Talon might have they base of operations located but as I said, it's a theory." Ghost plugged his tac-pad into the holotable. The hologram changed to an overhead image of the a cluster of warehouse and shipping crates. "They were able to track the operative to this warehouse in the very center." Ghost said pointing to a warehouse, the building he points at is highlighted as he does so. "The problem was that when Victoria investigated the warehouse, there was nothing that indicated Talon's presence. It was just a normal warehouse filled with shipping containers, crates, and boxes. So we decided to investigate the area and we noticed something odd, to say the least. All of the workers that worked near that center warehouse were all armed with handguns or SMGs and not your run of the mill bought at your local gun store type either. I'm talking about military grade hardware. The only times they actually worked was to patrol around the area or to pretend they were doing something when other dock workers came by to move things into the other warehouses."

"So you're saying that that building is important?"

"Basically. That building could be key to Talon's operation of the area."

"But you stated that you came up with nothing when you investigated the facility itself."

"You see we brainstormed that when we saw how tight security of the place was when we staked it out. Our best idea is that the facility is underground and there's an entrance to the base inside the warehouse." Ghost said unplugging his tac-pad. "Other than that, that's my report. Pretty standard scouting mission. No unwanted complications or engagements with the enemy. Basically nothing exciting happened."

"Alright, thank you for your report. I suppose it's time for you to meet your team." Winston said. In truth, Ghost was hoping to avoid this entirely and just go straight to talking to Lena. They didn't have many opportunities to talk while he was away on his mission and he honestly missed the cheerful young Brit.

"Fine, let's get this over with." Ghost sighed. The three followed Winston to the back of the room ship where 76 and Ghost were talking initially as it was the least crowd place there. As they walked there, Winston called over three other agents to follow him and they did so with slight hesitation. Once they arrived at the back of ship, Winston spoke up.

"Now, you're probably wondering why I asked each of you here." Winston began. "Look to your left, look to your right, these men and women will be the ones watching your back until further notice. From this moment, you six are now officially an Overwatch Strike Team. What you call yourselves is up to your team leader to decide."

"And who would that be?" One of the Overwatch agents asked.

"That role falls onto Ghost's shoulders." Winston said gesturing the masked man.

"Like hell he is! I'm not taking orders from a criminal." another agent said. "What gives him the right to lead?"

"Hey, dumbass, we're all criminals in the eyes of the Petras Act." Victoria said.

"This team is design to incorporate resources from both Soldier: 76's side with our own. To build trust between the two sides. There are other agents that feel the same way you do so we need to show them that they can be trusted." Winston explained. "Ghost was put in charge not only because he has the most experience in fighting Talon in the group but he has also experience on both sides of this agreement, being a former Overwatch agent."

"There's a reason we don't trust them. They're vigilantes that take the law into their own hands. I refuse to be a part of this team of..." the man thought for a second for the right word "Of jokes."

"Yeah and so are some of the other agents. So drop the attitude and start acting like a soldier. Also," Ghost said with a brief pause. "Welcome to Joker Squad." The man seem to glare at him with as much hate as he could muster, furthering Ghost's amusement. The other members of the newly named team looked at each other and just shrugged giving a thumbs up to the name. After all, there could have been worse names Ghost could have chosen. Turning his attention back to Winston, Ghost spoke to him. "Thanks, Winston, I'll take it from here." Winston nodded and walked off, leaving Ghost by himself in front of the five other agents. "Guess we better get to know each other. Introduce yourselves, what are you good at, abilities if you have any, you know basic stuff so we can get a good idea of how to work with each and I can come up with proper strategies for our missions." Ghost explained. The others looked at him and most nodded in agreement. "Ironwood, why don't you start us off."

"Alright." Adam looked around at the others and stepping next to Ghost, who just leaned against the wall behind him. "Guess I'll start with my name. My name is Adam Norwood, callsign Ironwood. No real special abilities. I'll be the one getting shot at the most in our group since I specialize in area denial and drawing enemy fire. I do that with these." Adam said as he pulled one of the device of his back. As he attached his arms to the device via a magnetic bracer on his left arm, the device opened up to reveal it true form, a riot shield. "I have a couple of these and they're not particularly hard to make, especially with some hard-light tech generously 'donated' from the Vishkar Corp. They're lightweight, highly durable riot shields with an extra function. These spikes at the bottom aren't just good for hitting people on the floor, they're also allow me to insert the shield into the floor and sides will extend out to act as mobile cover but it takes quite a bit of force to pick them up again. Of course I'm forced to mention that this will break if subjected to heavy amounts of fire for extended periods of time, hence why I carry several. They're also very good at blocking passes or doorways so it's useful for creating choke points until they, you know, destroy it." Adam explained putting the device away. He couldn't showcase the other ability of the riot shield as they were still on the ship and he didn't want to risk destroying something important. "My other piece of equipment is this." Adam pulled out what looked liked a tear gas canister. "It's a gas grenade. Harmful when inhaled and will corrode whatever type of metal Omnics are made of for a radius of about 3 meters, 7 once all the gas out and spilled everywhere. However, after a few seconds of exposure to oxygen, the gas will start harmlessly dissipating into the air with no harmful effects to the environment. I made sure, I care about the planet too. Also if you're ever caught in the gas, just get out of as soon as possible, your body will quickly flush it out of your system once you do. If you stand in it for long periods of time, you're not only an idiot but you'll probably dead as well. A mask with a standard filter should be enough for you to go through it without problem, though you might want to close eyes as it will sting." Everyone besides Ghost and Victoria seemed worried the rather controversial piece of equipment.

"Anything else you would like to add?" Ghost asked as he leaned against the wall. Adam thought for a moment. He had a feeling that he was forgot something when suddenly it clicked in his mind.

"Oh right! The gas is flammable. I carry magazines of incendiary rounds so if need be, I can swap to those and I can ignite the gas resulting in a pretty hot and decently sized explosion or fireball, depending how much gas as dissipated or escaped from the canister." The other agents looked at him with growing concern. "Unfortunately, I only carry a handful of those magazines so I use them scarcely.

"Wait, weren't chemical weapons and incendiary weapons banned and go against some kind of international rules of engagement?" one of the agents asked.

"I...don't remember but now that you mention it, probably." Adam said. "I'll fix my load out some other time. V, you're next." Adam walked back to his previous spot in the group.

"Fine, let's get this over with." Victoria said. "My name is Victoria. No callsign or codename but Ghost and Ironwood both have a tendency to call me 'V' for short so do with that as you will. My skill set is gears me as towards the role of a combat medic. I carry several first-aid kits that I can give you to patch yourselves up or if your injuries are beyond your expertise, I can patch you up." Victoria said reaching into her pockets and producing a med-kit to show them before putting it away. "I use a military carbine that swaps between semi-auto to full auto so I'm effective at most ranges. My last skill that I can use every so often is this." Victoria removed the large cylinder from off her back. "Its basically a larger version of Soldier: 76's biotic field generator that has a larger effective radius and last much longer. The main draw back is that it takes awhile to recharge after each use." Victoria explained. "I'm done. Who's next?" With that, Victoria walked back next to Adam. The three Overwatch agents looked at each other, nodding for each other to go first. After they all shared a look with each other with no decision made in their silent conversation, one of them just sighed and stepped forward.

"I guess I'll start since the other two are too shy." the agent said. Ghost recognized him from the time he and 76 were asked for a check-up when they were first accepted into the Overwatch. He was the one that didn't threaten them. "My name is Desmond Attano, callsign Tech. I'm a combat engineer and technician. This is my partner, Lady." Desmond said as he reached into the side pouch of his bag and tossed the object into the air. The object sprung to life as it opened up to revealed itself to be a sort of quadrotor drone. The drone hovered there as Desmond as reached into his bag removed what looked like parts to a small caliber firearm and attached it to the bottom of the drone. Once in place, Lady hovered in front of the Ghost and he could see the camera lens inside adjust as her took scans of him and tagged him as friendly. Lady proceeded to do the same with Adam and Victoria before she returned to Desmond. "Lady here is armed with an automatic pulse pistol, very much like the ones that Tracer carries, except a little stronger, while I carry pulse submachine gun." To show what he meant, he held up his own pulse weapon. "I can repair equipment, send out drones, access terminals, etcetera, etcetera, basically everything you would expect from a combat engineer/technician. Lady, on the other hand, can be set into three different modes. Sentry, follow, and attack mode. Sentry is when she'll guard an area and fire at anything trying to pass that's not mark as friendly or civilian. Follow mode is exactly what it sounds like. She'll follow a designated person or object and guard it. Attack mode is when I give Lady a specific target eliminate. She'll fly off, deal with the target, then return to me and resume follow mode. Although, we might have to provide cover fire when we do this because the little lady doesn't have much in the way of armor. She can take a few rounds but anything more than a burst or two from a rifle will kill her." Desmond said Lady collapsed into her more compact form and was stored away, weapon and all. "I can fill in another support role if I can get Doctor Ziegler's assistance in making some modification to Lady so she can carry something similar to the doctor's staff but on a smaller scale." Desmond finished. "That's basically all I have to say. I'll leave it up to my two comrades to figure out which one goes next." With that Desmond walked back to his spot. The next person to step forward was the only other female on the team besides Victoria.

"I guess I'll go next. My name is Luna Choi. I'm your sharpshooter. I can paint targets for the rest of you to see with these." Luna said, holding up a bullet. The bullet had a green tip. "These bullets literally paint an opponent but doesn't hit hard enough to damage someone beside leave a bruise. It leaves a small splotch of paint on them gives off an electronic signal that I can see with this." Luna pointed to her goggles. "When this is over I'll patch everyone into the frequency so you can see anyone that gets painted. My next type of bullet are called Flash Rounds." She presented another bullet, this time it was larger and orange tip. It has a small sensor in it so when it's about to impact something, it bursts into a bright flash. Basically, a long range flashbang but doesn't last as long. Its other purpose is that it works wonders against barriers. A magazine and a half can even drop Reinhardt's barrier. Bad news is they aren't exactly good against anything else. They can either stun for a second or they can take out a barrier, that's all. All of these rounds are loaded into different magazines so if I want to use them, I'd have to swap magazines in the middle of the fight."

"So how do you tell the difference between each, besides the bullet tips?" Adam asked.

"Regular rounds loaded into extended mags, which hold ten rounds, while Flash Rounds are loaded in custom magazines that only hold four, and the Paint Rounds are loaded into standard magazines, which hold five."

"Smart." Victoria said. "What else you got?"

"Yeah, I have one other round that I use very scarcely." Luna pulled out one last bullet. This one was bigger than the other rounds. These bullets had a brighter red tip.

"Are those what I think they are?" Ghost asked.

"Yeah, they're HE rounds. Great for armored targets, unarmored targets, barriers, light cover, some walls, aircraft, if you can hit them." Luna listed off. Ghost had seen these rounds in use before, mostly in test footage during the First Omnic Crisis. They word wonders against Bastion units, able to destroy a Bastion in one round, and it even did plenty of damage against the bigger and more heavily armored Omnics, such as Spider Tanks.

"Wait, what's an HE round?" Victoria asked.

"High explosives rounds. They were an experimental round from the US during the Omnic Crisis. Worked wonders against Bastion units and other heavily armored Omnics but was shut down in favor for just regular explosives rounds since they easier to produce and the US already had a stockpile of them. Also if something went wrong and it back fired, it could easily kill the user." Ghost explained. "Nice find, by the way. Not many people or organizations have those." Luna did a mock bow at the praise before stepping back.

"You're turn, Garret."

"Fine. My name is Abraham Garret. Most either call me Garret or Hevy since I'm a heavy weapons specialist. My weapon is a rocket launcher. I'll be dealing with most armored targets." Hevy said before going back to his spot.

"Is that it?" Adam asked.

"Yeah, that's it. Got a problem with that, merc?" Hevy growled at Adam. However, before Adam could respond, Ghost cut in.

"Disappointed more like it." Ghost said. "I'm sure everyone here is aware of my skill set and abilities so I don't have to go over them." Ghost said. "Now we can go back to ignoring each other until we're deployed in a few hours." Everyone just nodded and walked back to go continue what they were doing earlier until Ghost spoke up one last time. "Oh and last minute notes, Hevy, when we get back to the watchpoint, requisition a sidearm because you can't rely solely on your launcher." Ghost said. He heard Hevy grumble something under his breath but decided not to address it. "Adam, Luna, this doesn't need to be said but I'll say it anyway, warn us before you two use before you use your HE or incendiary rounds so we're ready for it and Adam, warn us before tossing a gas grenade. Since V is our medic, we have to make sure she doesn't die so she can do her job on making sure we don't die. Desmond, I want a full report on Lady's capabilities and her hardware as soon as possible. Last thing we need is Lady going down to an EMP or being turned against us if she's hacked. That's all for now. You are now dismissed to do as you pleases." With that Ghost disappeared from view. The others just shook their head and walked off to go do other things.

In the cockpit, Tracer was sitting in the pilot seat, bored out of her mind. Athena had taken control of the dropship and had taken them to cruising altitude. Normally, Tracer would have been down there with the rest of them but since Ghost was coming on board, she had been told to stay up there so he didn't get distracted since he had to give a report and meet his new team. So now here she was, sitting in the pilot seat watching the handful of clouds go and the sunshine through the window.

"Are you sure I can't go down yet?" Tracer asked Athena.

"Winston has made given me no notification as of yet." Athena responded before picking up something on her internal sensors. "It seems like you won't have to go downstairs. Someone is coming up." Lena spun the around to face the stairs to see...no one. She was about to say something when she heard someone else's voice next to her.

"You know, standing up here makes me feel like Commander Morrison." Ghost appeared next to here, standing in the front of the ship between the two chairs with his arms grasped behind his back. "You get a very commander feel from standing here." Ghost turned to see the amused faced of Tracer and smiled. Even if she couldn't see it, she knew it was there. "What do you think? Think Morrison use to stand up here a lot?" Before he could doing anything else, Tracer blinked forward and crashed into him with a hug, almost knocking him over in the process. With a smile that no one could see, he hugged back. "Hey there, Lena. Did you miss me?"

"Of course I did. Everybody was so focused on work and training. No one just wanted to have fun. Plus we only got to talk a few times while you were away so things have been rather boring." Tracer said looking up at him. "Oh did you think about what I asked?" She asked cheerfully. During their last talk, Tracer had made her mission to convince him to take off the mask for her, something he disagreed to do every time she asked that day.

"Lena, we talked about this."

"I know but this time is different. There's a chance I won't see you ever again after this mission."

"There's a bigger chance you won't see any of us again if our identities are compromised. You know the rules when we agreed to help Overwatch out."

"Yeah but you're not allowed to leave."

"And why's that?"

Because you promised you would never leave me before we left Gibraltar." Ghost was about to say something to retort but when he thought about, he realized she was right.

"I guess I did promise you that, didn't I?" He asked, to which he only received a giggle in reply. "Well played but the promise only applies to you, got it?" Tracer nodded in agreement with a clear smile on her face. "I'm still not showing you my face though." Tracer's smile quickly turned into a pout.

"So tell me about London. It feels like it's been ages since I've been there."

"From what you've told me, nothing really new has come up there. It's pretty much the same since you were last there. Although they've started construction on a statue for Mondatta over at King's Row." Tracer just hummed in thought before responding.

"I'll have to go back there to see it when it's done. Mondatta was an inspiration to me."

"Sounds like a nice idea. Mind if I tag along?"

"That sounds lovely. It'll be nice to go back home with someone. You can even stay at my flat when we go." This time it was Ghost's turn to just hum in response. To him it sounded like a wonderful idea, especially since this meant some time to hang out with Lena. The last time he had been in London with the sole purpose of relaxing was when his parents were still alive. It'll be nice to have some down time to do nothing but hang out. The two then separated and Tracer returned to the pilot seat while Ghost took a seat in the unoccupied co-pilot seat. As Tracer went back to managing the console, she saw Ghost pull his hood over his head out of the corner in her eye, making it so that she couldn't see his mask anymore. Glancing over, she watched as Ghost removed his mask and place it on his lap. She was tempted to blink over and take a peek but she wasn't sure how he'd react to that. He did say that if their identifies were compromised, they were leaving. She didn't want to risk that.

"Hey, James, mind if I see you're mask?" She asked him.

"Sure, catch." He said. His voice was different with the voice filter the mask provided. It wasn't as rough as before and it sounded much younger than what she originally thought. One thing was for sure, she definitely like his normal voice much more. Letting Athena take control, Tracer removed her goggles and held the mask over her face. As she did, she was surprised to see the amount of data going through the visor. Just from a glance she could see a counter for his cloaking ability, his vital signs and a few other icons that kept track of things.

"Press the button on the right side of the visor, near your temple, and look over at me." She did as she was told and looked over at him while her right hand searched for the button. Finding it, she looked at him and the visor zoomed in on him and scanned him. As it finished scanning him, his agent profile appeared with some added on information, including information she previously didn't know. However, what surprised her the most was the symbol that appeared next to his name. Instead of the Overwatch symbol, like she was expecting, next to his name the Blackwatch symbol, Overwatch's covert operations branch. Not many people in Overwatch, especially now, were willing to trust former Blackwatch agents, even those that weren't part of the rebellion or those that sided with Overwatch in the event. Even McCree got some cold stares and unfriendly words from the other agents in the first couple of days after recall. She wasn't sure what to make of the information. He wasn't a bad person, quite the opposite from what she's seen. Ghost has shown no malcontent toward her or any other member of Overwatch and he's been more open with her than anyone else in Overwatch, more than he had ever needed to be. Call her crazy but she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and let him explain himself.

"Um, love, why does it show the Blackwatch symbol next you name?" She asked as she tossed him back his mask. James went silent for a few moments as reequipped the mask and he weighed the pros and cons of telling her more. While he wasn't an actual Blackwatch operative, he knew that just being associated with them was bad enough in the eyes of some people and might even use that as a reason to turn him, Soldier, and Ana in. Glancing back at her, he could see her staring intently at him, let him know that she wasn't going to drop the question. Thankfully there were no other Overwatch agents up here as most didn't trust themselves around any of the consoles around them or in the nook below them. Running his hand through his hair with a sigh, he was going to have to trust her, more than he already does.

"I'll tell you but you have to promise not to tell anyone?" This time it was Tracer's turn to think. If he was having her promise not to tell anyone, It didn't take her long to use the situation to her advantage. It wasn't hard to figure out what she wanted when the mischievous smile and giggle appeared on her face.

"Alright but one condition." Ghost silently swore as he knew what was coming next. He watched as she walked over and took a seat on his lap sideways and faced him, Thankfully, he had moved the safety harness out of the way so they were able to sit comfortably. "You can't wear this." She slowly brought her hands up to his face and gently grasped the sides of his mask. Before she could remove the mask, however, Ghost stopped her.

"This stays between us."

"Of course, love." She said with a giggle. With that out of the way, he let go of her hands and she proceeded to remove the mask, the mask making a small click as it disconnected. Moving the mask out of the way, Tracer finally got her first look at his face as she made eye contact with his dark brown eyes. While she spent the next minute memorizing every detail, James tried his best not to make eye contact after that but his attention was drawn back to her as he heard her giggle. "See? Was that so hard?" A smile broke out across James's face as he let out a small laugh. "I don't see why you don't take off you're mask more often. You're such a cutie." She said before holding the mask over her face once again and let the voice filter kick in. "Cheers, love. The cavalry's here." Another laugh escaped James's lips as he listened to her go through different catch phrases with the voice filter. Tracer was enjoying herself and, more importantly to her, she was enjoying hearing James's actual voice and his laugh. After letting her have her bit of fun, James figured it was time to tell. He was a man of his word after all.

"Now I believe I owe you an explanation." He said lowering his voice. He didn't want to take the risk of anyone else overhearing him if he spoke too loudly. Tracer looked at him with the mask still on and nodded, her curiosity coming back full swing. "I don't want to bore you with the detail so I'll give you the short version. I'm not sure if Winston told you but I use to be an Overwatch recruit. Half through training, however, the higher ups felt that my skill set was better suited for covert ops so they put in the request to have us transferred into Blackwatch's training program. The request was accepted, our files were scrubbed from Overwatch's database, and we were told that get ready to be transferred within the next few days. However, the day before we were supposed to be transferred. Reyes lead his attack against Morrison but because the transferred was already accepted, I was still stuck with the Blackwatch tag next to my name."

"But I saw your agent profile when we first caught you and you didn't have the Blacwatch symbol there." Tracer said. She remembered looking reading his profile with Winston the night she found him on the cliff ledge. James, on the other hand, scratched the back of his neck.

"Well, since I'm being honest here, when 76 and I were exploring the watchpoint, I found a terminal with an Overwatch registration window open and I made a new profile there. Otherwise, I won't have had an Overwatch profile to convince you guys not to arrest us." Tracer gasped at the revelation.

"You lied to us." She said, smacking his chest plate. James only laughed at the accusation.

"Well, actually I never lied. Left out part of the truth, sure, but didn't lie. I _was_ Overwatch agent in training. I _did_ have agent profile at the time when I told you, and we did get the recall, just didn't accept right away." He could almost feel Tracer's pout from underneath his mask, which she was still wearing.

"Well you should have told the truth from the beginning. It would have made it easier to trust you from the beginning." Tracer said, leaning herself against him.

"True but a lot of them aren't like you. They're not willing to take that leap of faith and trust me. If they knew I use to have ties to Blackwatch, they would have just turned us in, no questions asked." He said. Wrapping his arms around her in hug, he did something she didn't expect. "So thank you for that. Thank you for trusting me and for listening to me and for giving me a chance, for everything." Tracer was suddenly glad she was still holding the mask to her face as she felt her face heat up. She wasn't expecting him to thank her or the sincerity behind his voice as he said it. He sounded just as vulnerable as he did when she found him on the cliff that night. However, with the nice feeling bubbling up in her chest, she was also starting to feel guilty because here he was being honest with her at basically every turn and she was using it to her advantage and reporting everything she had learned back to Winston and now he was thanking her. She could feel the guilt starting to eat her up inside but before she could act on the that guilt, she heard someone cough behind him, trying to get their attention. Sitting up straight, she looked behind him and saw Winston standing there with a disapproving look on his face and a good number of people in the main hold of the ship looking up at them as well. She had forgotten that they could see them from down there. She had also remembered at that moment that she was still wearing his mask and quickly tried hiding it behind her back.

"Um, hiya." She said awkwardly. Next to her, she could hear James muttering curses as he threw on his hood.

"Lena, a word please." Winston said before walking off.

"Do you think they heard us?" James asked to her.

"I don't think so." She said as lowered herself out of view.

"Guess we're better find out, huh?" He said. Giving her a smile, he gently took his mask off of her hands and was about to reequip it when she stop him.

"Wait." She stopped him. "Promise me, you won't wear the mask anymore, at least not around me."

"Promise." He said with a smile. Tracer's face lit up like a Chrismas tree.

"Thanks, love." She said before giving him a quick kiss and blinking off with a giggle. James could sit there wide eyed as his brain processed what happened. After what seemed like an eternity in his mind, he finally reenter reality.

"Holy shit."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _Detroit city limits, Michigan, United States_

Of all the cities in the United States affected by the Omnic Crisis, one of the worse to be hit was Detroit due to the Detroit Omnium. Even six years after the Omnium was shut down by the original Overwatch Strike Team, Detroit had barely recovered. The ruined city could be seen miles out from the city limits as could the scars it bore from the war. Few skyscrapers remained and many parts of the rebuilding city still laid in ruin. If you were to look for them, you can still find one of the many scrapped Omnics, mostly Bastion units and humaniod Omnics, scattered around in back alleys and other low traffic areas. The one thing that took the biggest blow during the war was the population of the city. When the God Programs infected the Omnics of the world, Detroit had the highest Omnic population in the US because of its proximity to the Omnium. While the city had now lost that record, Omnics were still the majority in the city, despite nearly all the humans in the city doing their best to make them feel unwelcome.

One Omnic, however, stood at the city limits, looking over the city in the distance. Like many other of today, it was a humanoid Omnic that stood at 6'7. Unlike most other humaniod Omnics, that usually had a cool colours for the glowing parts, this one's eyes and other glowing parts glowed an ominous red. Along with the unusual colour and size, its metal plates were reinforced with titanium plates, its joints modified to have flexible tube that had a glowing red cooling solution flowing through them like blood through veins, and with the marking etched into the metal and a sickening twisted grin etched into the faceplate. The side of the Omnic's head sported two sensors that looked almost like pointed ears on it.

"Worry not, master. Soon, you're will will be done and you will be restored." It said to a data chip it held in its hand before inserting the chip into a slot in the back of its head.

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for reading. This chapter was long as hell and I just dumped a lot of new shit on you guys, making probably the longest chapter I've ever written.**

 **So this chapter ended up being a mixture of this chapter and the next one I had planned because I had a lot of things I wanted to get out of the way. The introduction of Joker Squad, some Ghost and Tracer fluff because fuck if I know, I just felt it would be nice to add to show that not everything is wrong in the world, Ghost's being unmasked to at least Tracer, some more backstory on James, and finally the introduction to a new villain. All fun stuff that I wanted to get out of the way and I promise will be expanded upon in the future. For now, the next few chapters will be dealing with the attack at Ilios. I'm having a great time writing this.**

 **So what did you think of this chapter? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Feel like it's moving too fast or too slow in certain regards? Let me know with a comment or review or just shoot me a PM if you want a quick response from me. Seriously, I love hearing from you.**

 **Anyways, thanks again and remember, have a great day. I'll see you next time.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N**

 **Hey everybody. I just wanted to say a late happy holidays and happy New Year. Thank you so much for being here supporting me as I stumble my way through this mess of a story, especially those that have been here since the beginning, and more importantly, thank you so much for helping me out. I know it wasn't the most serious of problems but that last bit of lore threw my thinking and planning in for a loop and I wasn't sure what to do. So thank you everyone who, reviewed, PMed, or did the poll. You guys are the best.**

 **This chapter is just a short little fluff chapter to get me back into the swing of things since I really didn't get a chance since I asked for your help. So with the holidays over for me, I can get back to work.**

 **Anyways it seems that the popular majority of you want me to continue the story as I intended so I'm going to do just that. I'll be honest, it was the way I was leaning when I asked but I wanted to hear what you guys had to say and for everyone to have say in the matter. So thank you again for helping me out. Disclaimer time. (Is this even necessary anymore?)**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developers. All I own is the plot of this story and some of its characters.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Overwatch dropship, En route to Ilios, Greece_

For the second time today, Winston was in the back of the dropship, only this time he was here to discuss the growing relationship between one of his agents and one of Soldier: 76's soldiers. If he had known that this was going to happen when he asked her to get close to the young soldier, would asked someone else. While he was happy that his friend has found someone she got along with that well, he didn't want her to get too attach encase that person wasn't who he said or made himself out to be.

"So what did you need to talk to me about?" Tracer said as she looked around the back of her ship, happy to see that everything was still in order, despite the amount of people that have been back here.

"I wanted to talk to you about Ghost. You two seem to have gotten increasingly close since he and Soldier agreed to help us."

"Yup." Tracer said cheerfully. "I even got him to take off his mask." She stated proudly.

"I noticed. Tell me, besides his appearance, what else have you discovered about him?" Winston asked, adjusting his glasses. This made Tracer pause as, while she had come across some new information on James, she promised him that she won't tell anyone, leaving her in an tough spot.

"Nothing really. I was only able to convince him to take off his mask this time around. I've already told everything else."

"And what were you two whispering about? I heard you two mention something about Blackwatch." Winston said. This put Tracer in an especially bad spot as she wasn't sure what to tell Winston. Deciding to take a page out James's playbook, she decided she would tell the truth but leave out part of it.

"We were talking about former Blackwatch agents, like Jesse."

"Is that all?"

"Yup. We were talking about how Overwatch members would react to them showing up again, not well we reckoned." Winston seem to buy it as he snort and nodded. Even he wasn't exactly fond of most Blackwatch agents as most of them shared their leader's sentiment on him.

"Alright. Can you describe what Ghost looks like under his mask, eye colour, scars, other notable features?"

"Of course. James has these beautiful dark brown eyes and the most adorable smile." Tracer said as she recalled James without his mask, making her unknowingly smile. "No scars that I've noticed, a few freckles, but that's about it."

"I'll take your word for it." Winston said before sighing. "Now the reason I wanted to talk to you. While I'm not oppose to your growing relationship with Ghost, I'm going to ask you to exercise caution. I don't want you to get hurt if he isn't who he says he is."

"I can take care of myself, Winston." She said with a giggle. Winston was always looking out for her, something she's always been grateful for. "Besides, I have a good feeling about him. He won't have opened up as much if he was trying to trick us."

"Regardless, exercise some caution." Winston said as he began walking toward the stairs. Tracer did a mock salute as Winston passed before blinking back to the cockpit. As she got there, she noticed Ghost still sitting in the copilot seat.

"Were you waiting for me?" Tracer asked but got no response. "James?" Again, no response. Walking in front of him, she noticed that he had his mask once again reequipped. Taking her previously abandoned seat on his lap, she gently began removing his mask. "James, are you alright, love?" When she got the mask off, she was surprised to see that him fast asleep. With a smile, she gave him a quick kiss before placing the mask back on his face. "Sleep well, love." With that, she decided that she could use a quick nap as well and join the Ghost in his slumber, using the unsuspecting soldier as a pillow.

 **A/N**

 **Well that's a wrap everyone. I really can't thank everyone enough for giving me the motivations to continue this story. You have no idea how much it means to me. So thank you.**

 **Normal story stuff picks up once more next chapter as well as the story once again expanding to focus on everyone a little more instead of just Ghost and Tracer's growing relationship. That being said, a** **nything else I would mention down here is probably said up above so besides this small snip bit, that's it for this short fluff chapter.**

 **So what did you guys think of this chapter? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Leave a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more your style.**

 **Thanks again everyone. I will see you next and as always, have a great day. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N**

 **Hey everybody. I hope you are doing well in this new year considering the I started this chapter right after new years. Welcome to the latest chapter of this story. I honestly have nothing of any kind of value except thank you for reading and I hope you stick around. That's it. Disclaimer time.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and it's respective developers. All I own is the plot of this story and some of the characters.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Greece, 16 minutes until first objective_

As the dropship got closer to the first drop point, Ghost awoke to the feeling of something on top of him and the distinct lack of feeling in his legs. With a slight groan, he opened his eyes to the sight of Tracer still sound asleep on him. Blinking hard to make sure he wasn't still asleep, Ghost realized that he was, in fact, awake. As he began panicking on what happened, he noticed that in all his fidgeting, Tracer had begun to slide off of him. Quickly catching her and holding her close, Ghost sighed as he was now wide awake. As he looked at down the sleeping Brit, he couldn't help but smile.

 _'I can get use to this.'_ He thought to himself. With another sigh, he looked at the console. "Athena, how much longer until we arrive at the first drop point?" Ghost asked as he looked at the time display in his visor. He had be asleep for almost three hours.

"Fifteen minutes until arrival at drop zone Alpha." Athena said her icon appeared on the console in front of him.

"Who's heading out there first?" Ghost asked as he tilted his head to crack his neck.

"Joker Squad is the first team being deployed." Athena stated. "Might I add that you wake up Agent Oxton. She insisted that she'd be the one to handle the landings."

"Got it. Did anyone come up looking for one of us?"

"Shrike came up once to check up on you but quickly left after seeing your's and Agent Oxton's sleeping arrangement." Ghost let out a quiet curse as he heard that.

"Great." Ghost sighed. If there was one thing he learned about Ana, it was that she loved to tease him and Morrison, especially when it came to matters of a relationships. "Thanks, Athena. I better wake up Lena now."

"Understood." With that, Athena's icon disappeared from the console. Looking back at Tracer, Ghost brought a hand up to his face and removed his mask before gently shaking Tracer. After about a minute, Tracer finally stirred from her sleep and looked up at him half awake.

"I can get use to awaking up like this." She said with a smile before stretching a bit and trying to once again make herself comfortable on top of him.

"You waking up on probably one of the most uncomfortable people to fall asleep on?" James said with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course." Lena said looking him in the eyes with a tired, yet mischievous, smile. "Although I think you'd be a lot more comfortable without all that armor." She watched as James's cheeks quickly turned red before he broke eye contact with an all too obvious fake cough.

"Anyway, we can sleep more later but for now we gotta get up."

"Do we have to?" Tracer mumbled, not wanting to move just yet.

"Unfortunately, yeah. We got a job to do." James replied. "Now off. I need to get the blood flowing in my legs again." With a small groan, Tracer got off his lap and stood up to continue stretching. James attempted to stand up only to fall right back into his seat, feeling unsteady on his feet. Once the feeling had passed, he tried again, this time with more success. As he quickly regained feeling in his legs, he did a few stretches of his own while listening to Athena fill Tracer in what she missed while they were asleep. Once done, Lena took her original seat in the pilot seat.

"Looks like you're up first."

"Seems that way." James said as he looked at the front of his mask, the blue visor staring back at him. As soon as he put the mask back on, it was back to business but before he could do that, he had something else in he wanted to do. "Hey, Lena, before I leave, I wanna give you something." Tracer looked back at him with confused look and walked up to him.

"What is it, love?" She asked looking up at him. James just stayed silent as he gently pressed his lips against hers, making her eyes go wide. However, before she could recover from the surprise and react, James broke the kiss.

"Stay safe out there." With that, he reequipped his mask and disappeared from sight.

"You...too..." She said, barely getting the words out. Her mind was still on the kiss as reached up and touched her lips. Trying to shake the thought of what just happened from her head, she forced herself to return to the pilot seat and prepped the ship for it's descent instead of chasing after him. There would time for that later.

Downstairs, Soldier: 76 and Ana stood away from the rest of Overwatch as they rushed to make their final preparations for their mission when suddenly, Ghost appeared from in front of them.

"How nice of you to join us, James." Ana said with a mischievous smile under her mask. "Did you and Lena sleep well? You two looked quite comfortable."

"For the most part. Although, I still can't feel a few toes." Ghost said, knowing that was coming.

"Are you sure you don't want to spend a little bit longer with your girlfriend? You left her quite flustered after that kiss." Ghost visibly tensed when he heard that. He didn't think anyone saw what he did, especially with how preoccupied everyone was. 76, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow at the statement.

"You saw that?" Ghost said in almost disbelief. He could feel his face heating up under his mask.

"Oh, James, I may have only one eye but nothing escapes my sights." Ana said. 76 let out a small chuckle as Ghost debated the pros and cons of cloaking to temporarily escape Ana's teasing. "And what are you laughing about, Jack?" I saw the way you were talking to Angela earlier." This quickly got 76 to stop laughing as he realized that he was next in Ana's sights. This time it was Ghost's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Oh? And what was our fearless Commander doing with the good doctor?" Ghost asked, turning the tables on the older soldier.

"Just talking." Soldier said before he changing the topic. "More importantly, you have to get your team ready to move. We're almost at the landing area."

"Yeah, you're right." Ghost said with a sigh. Thinking about the mission, a thought occurred to him. "I have a question. What if the agent is KIA?" The question quickly dampened the mood. The possibility of the agent they were looking for being dead was very likely, especially given the situation, but none of them wanted to entertain the idea and tried to stay optimistic until now.

"Standard procedure. Grab the body and intel and extract."

"And if we can't get the body?"

"Recover their tags. That way we can at least remember them." 76 said. Ghost nodded and walked over off to join his team. His team was gathered around the supplies boxes in the wall. All of them were loading up on the necessary supplies for their mission. Looking at the time, he had roughly less than five minutes before they landed. He could see and feel the ship descending. Walking next to Adam, he checked over his supplies to make sure he had everything and sure enough, he did.

"So what's the op?" He heard Adam asked as he opened up one of his shields to check it over. Looking over he could see that the rest of his team was listening in as well.

"Search and rescue." Ghost answered. "Overwatch lost an agent here and we've been tasked to get them back. His last known coordinates were in the area near the lighthouse so that's where we're starting our search. Our job is to locate the agent and grab them along with any accompanying intel." Ghost explained as the rest gathered around him.

"So what if the agent is down." Adam asked as he placed the shield with others.

"We grab the body and bring them back if we can. If we can't, we recover the tags or some form of identification." Adam nodded in acknowledgement, knowing full well that possibility that the agent might be dead. The rest of them just stayed silent as they waited for the last few minutes of the trip. Finally Athena's voice came over the ship's intercom.

"Arriving at Ilios." Athena announced causing the entire ship to fall into silence. Ghost went over by the door and watched as they approached the edge of the town. "30 seconds."

"You know the music, time to dance." Ghost said, his voice carrying through the entire ship. The rest of Joker Squad gathered up as the dropship slowed. As the dropship came to a halt, the doors let out a hiss to equalize the pressure and a moment later, the doors open. "Move out." With that, Joker Squad rushed out of the door. Once the had disembarked, the door closed and the dropship took off, leaving the newly formed Strike Team on their own.

"Choi, get up high and keep an eye out. Desmond, get Lady prepped to follow me in to some recon. We need to know what we're up against before we come up with a plan."

"Can't you use my callsign?" Desmond groaned as he grabbed Lady and tossed her into the air.

"No." Ghost said. "Everyone else, establish a perimeter and keep your guard up. Turn away anyone who gets too curious." Everyone nodded and moved to accomplish their respective tasks. Lady hovered over to Ghost and hovered over him, awaiting orders.

"I'll control Lady from here. Just point give an objective and I'll get her there." Desmond said, taking a knee and producing a tablet from a hard case pouch attached to his chest piece.

"Keep her out of sight. I'll mark buildings that I want you check out." Ghost said as he pulled a corded out of his tac-pad and plugged it into the tablet. A process bar appeared on the tablet and the tac-pad and quickly filled to 100% "Sync complete. You should be able to see anything I mark now and I'll be able to see whatever Lady sees." He pointed to a building, marking it to test the connection. Desmond watched through the tablet and saw the outline of the building Ghost pointed at light up.

"I see it. Connection's good." Desmond said giving him the thumbs up. "Good hunting out there." Ghost nodded and cloaked, Lady following nearby. For the next fifteen minutes, he and Lady searched the town for any sign of their agents and avoiding Talon patrols but as Ghost made his way through the town, he noticed something extremely off about the town. Marking another building he wanted Lady to check out, he headed up some stairs to check out another building. Searching around the building, he found more signs of life but no sign of the people who lived there.

"Where is everybody?" Ghost muttered to himself before tapping his radio. "Dez, find anything?"

"Nothing. No sign of our agent or the townspeople." Desmond reported.

"Same thing on my end." Ghost said as he made his way into the building. As he turned the corner, he saw a Talon Soldier walking off onto the balcony. "Alright, have Lady get up high and start looking for threats." Ghost after knocking the guard out and dragging the body out of sight. Across the square, the other guard looked over to notice something was wrong.

"Not good. I'm counting at least 20-25 Talon operatives stationed here." Desmond mumble. "Heads up, I'm seeing a group of Talon troops going into the room at the base of the lighthouse. Could be where they're holding our missing agent."

"Copy that, I see 'em." Ghost said as he lowered himself on the balcony and zoomed in with his visor. The room at the base of the lighthouse had been cleared out of all furniture, with the exception of one chair in the middle of the room, occupied by a man who was slumped over. Zooming in on the occupant of the chair, his visor did a quick scan of the person and confirmed it was the missing agent. "That's our man." Ghost said as he marked the location of the agent. Noticing the timer on his cloak was about to end once more, he quickly made his way away from the balcony over into one of the shadows of the previous room. As he waited for his cloak to cool down, his radio beeped.

"Sir, be advised, we have a Talon dropship in bound to our AO." Desmond's voice came over the radio." Ghost peeked around the wall and saw the Talon dropship in the distance heading to the complete oppose it side of town from where he and his team deployed from.

"Got it. Alright, I'm on my back. Keep Lady on standby but keep her hidden." Ghost ordered as he cloaked once more. Quickly making his back to the rest of his team, Ghost was greeted by Desmond walking up to him with his tablet.

"We have a problem." Desmond reported, handing Ghost the tablet. "It's the reinforcements that came with that dropship." Looking at the live feed, it showed the three new arrivals. Like the other Talon soldiers, the armor and helmets wore were coloured black and/or dark gray. However, that's where the similar ended. The one leading the small group was of average height, their helmet was reminiscent of an old medieval crusader helmet with what looked like small dragon wings coming off of the sides and a one handed sword strapped to their left hip. As Lady zoomed in on the knight, a pistol with an extended magazine and a small bayonet attached could be barely seen on their right thigh, which Ghost assumed was done magnetically. The man behind the leader was a much taller and much bulkier man, carrying a heavy machine gun that was being feed ammo from the belt that attached to an ammo box on his back. The last member of the group was a woman armed with an assault rifle and had a large bag her back that gave them the feeling that whatever was inside wasn't cupcakes and party snacks. "Any ideas who they might be?"

"No clue but I don't like the look of them." Ghost said, not taking his eyes off the live feed, watching them look up to respond to a guard on the balcony above. Something about those three didn't sit well with him. As they watched the three enter the building at the base of the windmill, Ghost turned to Desmond. "Alert the others of what we just saw and tell them to get ready. We move out in three mikes."

"Copy that." Desmond said as walked over to everyone else and called them over while Ghost rewatched the footage of the three new arrivals on his tac-pad. Giving them a brief summary of what they just saw of the new threats, everyone nodded and prepped their gear. Within the next minute, Joker squad was out of the building and moving swiftly down the streets, following Ghost's lead.

Joker Squad spent the next while avoiding patrols and sneaking their way closer to the objective. As the team was about to reach the stairs that lead up to the second floor balcony that overlooked the objective, Ghost held up his hand and the group halted. Before they could ask why they had stopped, a voice could be heard from around the corner.

"I'm telling you, man. There is something wrong with those three." the voice said as it got closer.

"Yeah, well, what are you going to do about it? From what I heard, they're suppose to be part of some badass mercenary commando group was hired to work with those freaks Reaper, Widowmaker and their stupid brat, Sombra, since the last group that went with Reaper ended up in jail or didn't come back come back at all."

"Wait, then why are they even here? I thought those three were sent to Russia to carry out a hit on someone."

"I don't know probably has something to do with that spy we caught when we cleared out the town." one of the voices said.

"Still can't believe we basically wiped out the entire town."

"Had to be done. They got in our way and we wanted what was at the excavation site." the voice said as they turned the corner. The two Talon soldier that came into view stopped for as they came face to face with Joker Squad. Neither of soldiers were armed as they stopped carrying weapons after they took control of the town a few weeks ago. Inching away slowly, the two soldier tried to make a break for it only for one of them grabbed Adam and the other one's face collided with a cloaked rifle stock courtesy of Ghost, knocking him unconscious. Tossing the unconscious man to the side, Ghost proceeded to turn his attention to the other man who Adam had against the wall with his forearm to his throat.

"What do we do with him?" Adam asked as he slammed the man against the wall as he struggled for freedom which only got Adam to tighten his grip.

"Depends on how cooperative he is?" Ghost said as drew a knife and checked over the blade causing the Talon soldier to still as he caught sight of the knife. Adam knew what Ghost was doing and played along, knowing fully that Ghost had no intention of torturing the man. His time working with Ghost and 76 in the past has taught him that the two got their information a few different ways and from the ways things were going, it seemed that they were going with intimidation. The other member of the team, however, watched in a silence as the thoughts of them potentially torturing an enemy combatant entered their mind. They didn't like the idea of torturing people and viewed it as a radical form of information gathering that only Blackwatch and Talon would do.

"Wait, please." the man managed to choke out. "I'll talk." Adam looked back at Ghost for confirmation. When Ghost nodded, Adam loosened his grip on the man's throat.

"What is Talon doing here?" Ghost asked.

"I don't know. Us grunts weren't told anything specific. Just that we would be providing security for the dig site and the surrounding town."

"So you're wasting my time then?" Ghost asked with feint annoyance.

"Wait! From what I heard, they're excavating some kind of artifact from the dig site on the other side of the island."

"What kind of artifact?"

"I don't know. Just that it's really old and worth a lot of money. Talon wanted to sell it to highest bidder to fund something."

"And the townspeople?"

"Most of them are dead. Either they were executed or they died while excavating whatever helln we were digging up. The ones that are left should still be at the excavation site."

"How many of you are stationed here?"

"I don't know, about 40 to 50."

"Last question. What about the three mercs that arrived by dropship?"

"They're some kind of commando group. We weren't briefed on them. We were just told to stay out of their way. That's all I know, I swear." He look at Ghost with in fear. Ghost stared down the man for a few more seconds before he sheathed his knife.

"Drop him." Adam nodded and let the man go. The man fell to his hands and knees as he he tried to get more oxygen back into his lungs. As he sat back and leaned his back against the wall, he came face to face with Ghost's knee slamming into his face, denting the Talon soldier's mask inward and slamming the back of his helmeted head into the wall, knocking him unconscious. "Thank you for your cooperation." Turning to the rest of his team, Ghost soon found himself slammed against the same wall they had the Talon soldier pinned against by Garret.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? You can't go around threatening and torturing people for information, even if they're our enemy." Garret hissed.

"Garret, stand down." Desmond said as Adam took his attention off the street he was looking down to focus on Garret to make sure he didn't try to hurt Ghost.

"No, I'm not going to stand here while he treats this like some kind Blackwatch operation. It's because of people like him that Overwatch got a bad name in the first place. It's because people like him that people viewed us as no better than Talon or those traitors from Blackwa-!?" Garret said as his voice was getting progressively louder as he got more and more angry, applying more and more pressure to Ghost's throat with his forearm at the thought of Ghost and Ironwood using intimidation and even resorting to torture to force the man to talk. However all thoughts and words were interrupted when Ghost quickly turned the tables on the agent. Grabbing his arm and twisting it behind him, nearly dislocating it in the process, Garret's face impacted the stone wall with a enough force to stun him and almost render him unconscious.

"I would advise you to listen to Desmond's advice. I wasn't going to torture anyone but you need to shut the fuck up before you say something you regret." Ghost said as the distinct whirling noise of a gun barrel spinning up was heard from behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he knew he wasn't the only one who heard it as Adam quickly spun around with his ballistic shield engaged and caught the burst of heavy machine gun rounds and the follow up fire from the Talon soldiers with him when the gun quickly jammed, with the shield, almost knocking Adam off balance with the force of the bullets while Ghost pushed the dazed Garret to the side to be grabbed by Victoria and Luna.

"Contacts!" Adam shouted as he fired off a long burst from his submachine gun. The heavily armored man tanked the burst for the most part but as the recoil of the guns caused the bullets to travel up toward his head, he used his arm to cover his head and a small particle barrier wall generated in front of him. The two Talon soldiers that stood behind him continued to fired at Adam only to have their bullets blocked by their side of the wall as well. "Ghost, my shield can't take another hit like that and if the shield doesn't give then my arm will." Hearing this, Ghost was forced to came up with a plan to disengage and regroup.

"Choi, V, grab Garret and start falling back. Desmond, have Lady cover them while you take point. Adam, we're rear guard." Ghost ordered as he shouldered his pulse rifle and the fired off a few rounds at the edge of the Particle Wall to keep the enemy soldiers behind it. With orders given and no time to argue, everyone quickly jumped to complete their tasks. With the rest of the team moving, Adam and Ghost watched the particle wall start to deteriorate. Priming a grenade, Ghost tossed at the base of the wall causing the Talon soldiers to let out a loud curse as the wall disappeared and tried to get away but the grenade went off, killing the two lightly armored soldiers and injuring the heavily armored mercenary.

With their pursuers halted temporary, Adam and Ghost ran to join the rest of their team. Regrouping with the others, they started their retreat down the street came down from. However, as they were reaching the end of the street, another squad of Talon's soldiers, this time lead by the knight, came around the corner. Reacting on instinct, Desmond fired as he ran, scoring a few hits on some of the soldiers and causing the others to dive for cover.

"Contacts front!" Desmond yelled as he slid into cover to reload. "We're cut off." As the group got closer together, Adam ran up front and slammed his shield into the floor, causing it to detach from the magnetic bracer and expanded outward to provide more cover.

"Ghost, please tell me you have a plan?" Victoria asked. Ghost's brain went into overdrive as he went through every possible solution in his head, trying to find the one that got everyone out alive.

 _'Really wish 76 was here right about now.'_ Ghost thought to himself as he weighed his options. Looking back down the way they came, he saw a few enemy soldiers come running around the bend of the street, only for them to be driven back the collective fire of Luna and Victoria, letting him know that soon or later, that heavily armored mercenary would be upon them soon as well. Knowing they were out of time, Ghost went with what he had. "We have to go through them. Dez, we're dealing with guys in the front. V, get Garret back on his feet and ready to fight. Adam, Choi, I need fire support rear. Keep that heavy from opening up with his weapon when he shows up. Cook the bastard if you have to." Ghost ordered as he rushed to front to help Desmond deal with the squad ahead of them. Everyone did as they were told without hesitation. Sliding behind the already heavily damaged ballistic shield now turned mobile cover, Ghost leaned out to deliver a quick burst from his pulse rifle into the chest of a Talon soldier who had tried to line up a shot on the members of his team as they were getting into position.

Getting to work on trying to get Garret out of his dazed state, V tried the basics of trying to get some. When shaking him failed, she tried a hard slap. That, too, failed, and with the threats getting closer and hearing Luna curse loudly from a graze, she decided her best solution laid within her medical pouch. Removing a syringe from her pouch, she injected it straight into Garret's arm and waited for a few moments for it to start taking effect. With a sharp inhale, Garret was sitting up right with his eyes wide open. His mind was going into overtime as he tried figuring out the situation they were in until Victoria grabbed both sides of his face and forced him to look at her.

"Hey, look at me. We're in a bad position here and we need you to focus to get the job done. Adam and Luna need help dealing with the big guy in the back." As if on cue, Adam called out with some bad news.

"We got enemy reinforcements showing up! We can use some back up." Without needing to be told, Garret shouldered his launcher and went to assist the two in the rear. Seeing Garret coming, Adam rolled out of his cover and deployed his second ballistic shield to soak up some more fire as Garret took up cover in his previous spot. Standing up, Garret took aim to fire a rocket at attacking Talon soldiers, blinking hard to correct his vision. Firing the first rocket, the first rocket went wild as the flew past the Talon operatives and destroying a small cluster of crates. From the smoke of the explosion came the heavily armored mercenary, gun barrel spinning, letting loose a volley of bullets. Ducking behind cover, the heavy machine gun rounds ripped through the air around them, either pinging off Adam's shield or finding a home in the surrounding walls. The volley, however, was redirected as a rocket flew through the hail of lead, splitting into a small cluster four rockets. The majority of the rockets were destroyed in the wall of bullets but one rocket made it through and heading for the cluster Talon operatives. However, moments before the rocket could impact, the mercenary put up his particle wall once more, stopping the firefight in it's tracks. Looking at one another, one of the soldier looked at the wall before trying to touch it, only to find that his hand went through it. With that knowledge, the soldiers tried to to push through the wall only to pick of by precision fire from Luna or a burst from Ironwood's submachine gun, forcing them back behind the wall to wait for it to collapse. "We're secure back here but I don't know for how long." Adam called as he dropped another one of Talon's soldiers with a well placed shot before reloading.

"Copy that. Dez, V, let's mop 'em up." Ghost said. Crouched against the wall next to Desmond, V nodded as she flicked the switch on her carbine into semi-auto mode and fired at the remaining attackers. Following in suite, Desmond and Ghost popped out cover and opened up on Talon squad ahead of them, eliminating most of the enemy squad, leaving only the knight left.

With an annoyed grunt, the knight blind fired the rest of her magazine, causing Ghost and his team to get duck back down, and letting out a silent curse as the magazine went dry. Reattaching the pistol to her thigh, the knight rolled out her cover and drew her sword. Over her left forearm, a red kite shield was formed, using the same technology of the heavy's particle wall and her armor shimmered as a holographic copy of the knight rushed forward. Rushing forward behind the hologram as Ghost and his team came back up to fire again, the Overwatch team hesitated out of confusion at the sudden introduction of the holographic combatant and which one to fire out. Using the brief moment of hesitation to her advantage, the knight lunged forward at a surprising speed while the hologram absorbed a few of the rounds before dissipating and shield protected the from almost everything else. Shield bashing the combat engineer that had been giving her trouble since they first began this engagement, she sent him flying back into the medic, the energy shield shattering on impact. With a quick turn, the knight slashed at Ghost only to slash at the nothing but empty space. A moment later, Ghost uncloaked and bashed his rifle's stock into the knight's helmet, staggering her back before Ghost fired off the rest of his power cell at her, scoring a hit on her leg and driving them back to behind cover. A moment later, the pesky drone came back around and assisted in the surpressive fire, keeping the knight effectively pinned.

With the knight and the heavy pinned, Ghost used this as an opportunity to call for a retreat and escape.

"Alright, Joker Squad, this is our chance. Fall back and regroup." No one had to be told twice. Desmond and V were the first ones to slip away, followed by Adam and Garret, who fired to another rocket to as the particle wall collapsed, taking out several Talon soldiers, halting the push forward of the attacker. Being the last to retreat Luna and Ghost took it upon themselves to further delay their pursers. Luna sniped anyone who dared to show their face in her scope while Ghost attached a charge to the base of the now basically destroyed ballistic shield before the pair retreated with Lady following close behind.

With Overwatch on the run, a small squad of Talon troops pushed forward to pursue and eliminate the retreating enemy. However, as they pushed forward to where the Overwatch team was held up, a subtle beep noise was heard as they passed by to secure the area and a medic ran up to check on the knight. As the rest of Talon's troops caught up, the charge Ghost placed went off, engulfing several Talon operatives in flames and killing more with the shrapnel, sending a small fireball into the air followed by a large cloud of smoke that could be seen from the excavation site all over Ilios. Letting a cloaked Ghost slip away without problem in all the confusion.

As the threat of shrapnel and debris raining down on what was left Talon's forces passing, the knight stood up on shaky legs with the medic behind her and surveyed the damage. Several laid dead or dying with anyone who still stand rushing to their aid in hopes of keeping them alive until medics arrived. Limping out from behind her cover, she found her fellow mercenary also surveying the damage, his armor burned and had dented tanking so many bullets. His gun was damaged, with ammo belt shredded and some of the barrels having shrapnel lodged in them. Without even looking at her, he knew she was there and spoke.

"They're tough, I'll give 'em that. We had the jump on them and they still beat us back. Counted at least nine dead from the firefight on my side."

"Six dead on my end. How many did we lose in the explosion?" the knight asked as she grimaced at the bodies around her. Some of them were still moving, moaning in pain. Other's laid dead, laying in pools of their own blood, some not even having all of their limbs.

"Hard to say. Eight are already confirmed dead with more on their way from the look of it." He said as he watch a team of medics rush past to aid the injured. "Any idea who they were?"

"Don't know but they called themselves Joker Squad. Never heard of them before but they've certainly caught my attention now."

"We going after them?"

"No. We're in no shape to fight right now. Instead, we'll let them come to us. Tell the troops to pull back to the lighthouse and double the guards on the prisoner." the knight said as a medic came over to checked her over and patch her up. "Oh, and Grinder, tell Stalker to set her traps. Their leader can go invisible so make sure they working off of motion sensors."

"Yes, ma'am." With that, Grinder walked off to deliver the orders and fix his damaged weapon while she sat down to let the medic do his job.

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen for being patient while waiting for this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it. This chapter had be delayed and delayed for so long that it's honestly been almost exactly a month since I started writing it. Huzzah for being easily distracted.**

 **So couple things that you may have or have not noticed that I will now mention. If you haven't noticed, I've made Ilios much larger than it actual is in the game for the story. Didn't seem right to keep it as such a small town. Other locations that I plan to feature may or may not have this so I will let you know. And yes, I did added more enemies that aren't going to get offed in one engagement. We have the names of two of the people, Grinder being the heavy gunner and the Stalker being other one who will get a chance to showcase her abilities in the next time. Our holograph creating, shield bashing, sword swinging knight hasn't had her name introduced yet but will be next time and I promise it will be even more edgy than the other two. I'm curious to know what you guys think them. Let me know.**

 **It really didn't show up in this chapter and I'll do my best to show in next time but we do see some slight clashing ideas of how Ghost is use to doing thing compared to how Overwatch's, especially Garret's, view of how things should be done. Anyway, enough about that.**

 **What did you think of this chapter? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Let me know by comment/reviewing or shoot me a PM if that's more your style and/or you want a quick reply. I love feedback. Please let me know what you think.**

 **Anyways, thank you so much once again and remember, have a great day. I'll see you next time.**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N**

 **Hey everybody. Welcome back to the next chapter of this story. I hope you are all doing well. Now I want to answer some questions and address things that I got from reviews that I couldn't reply to them with private messages.**

 **First, yes, the romance between Ghost and Tracer will continue. I asked if I should or not and everyone who responded said I should and I agreed with them. Thus, I continue it.**

 **Second, about the bad guys. The thing about the bad guys is that the Omnic I introduced a few chapters ago is part of a completely different faction and has no affiliation with Talon or Overwatch. The introduction of the three new Talon mercenaries was more to give Reaper a team to work with and round it out to the 6v6 we're use to from the game. As the story progresses and fighting between the Overwatch and Talon continues, we will see glimpses of the Omnic building up his own forces because of as of this moment, it's only that single Omnic. There will be time skips in the future of this story to speed things along. It's tricky to explain without giving things so you'll just have to wait and see. Just know that the Omnic and Talon have nothing to do with each other and will most definitely hate each other when they meet. Talon doesn't like Omnics much. But enough about that.** **Disclaimer time.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developers. All I own is the plot of this story and some of the characters.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Ilios, Greece_

Escaping their pursuers, or assuming they have, most of Joker Squad found themselves trying to catch their breath in a small house, the only exception being Ghost who just opted to take up the role of a lookout while everyone rested.

"How...are you...not dying?" Luna asked in between pants. Since she and Ghost were the last ones to get away, they spent most of the time sprinting to catch up, especially Ghost, who stayed behind a little longer to set off his trap. After a few deep breath, she continued. "We ran like a mile."

"Because he's an asshole and he's driven by spite." The response came from Adam from his spot on the floor nearby. Everyone just looked at him with obvious confusion. "He use to lap the rest of us without breaking a sweat during training when we told to run and would keep doing it just to spite us." Looking to Ghost for an explanation, he just shrugged and went back to looking out the window while turning his attention every so often to the his wrist mounted device. Everyone fell into silence after that to catch their breath. After a few minutes of silence, Ghost stepped away from the window, now confident that they were no longer being pursued.

"Looks like we lost them." Ghost said as he slung his rifle. "How's everyone holding up?"

"Been better. Arm's pretty badly bruised and got grazed a few times but I can still fight." Adam said as he sat up.

"I got few cuts but other than that, I'm fine." Luna said rolling her shoulder.

"Still a little winded and bruised from when I got launched but I can keep going." Desmond reported. "Lady took a few rounds but she's operational."

"Glad to see you're fine, Desmond, considering I broke your fall." Victoria said before looking at Ghost. "I'll be okay but I'm going to feel it later." She said before making her way over to Adam to start patching him up. Turning to Garret, he said nothing and just laid motionless on the floor.

"Garret?" Desmond called out to him. "Garret, you alive?" Still no response. Desmond made his way over to Garret and tried shaking him, once again receiving no response. "That can't be good." Checking his pulse, he pleased to find that he was still alive. "Well, at least he's still alive."

"V, what did you give him earlier?" Ghost asked, remembering that it was Victoria who got him up originally.

"Hm?" Victoria looked back up at him, not paying attention what was happening while she was treating Adam's injuries.

"What did you give Garret? He's not waking up." Ghost asked again.

"Oh, I gave him a combat stim. It probably wore off by now so he probably crashed. He'll wake up in an hour or so. Nothing life threatening." V said nonchalantly.

"Can you give him another? We might need him." Luna asked.

"Do you want his heart to explode?"

"Not really." Ghost responded.

"Then I wouldn't recommend giving him another dose for at least another couple of hours so his body has some time to filter it out of his system." With that, V went back to patching up Adam, who looked a lot more unsure on if he wanted Victoria treating him.

"So, what's the plan?" Desmond asked, ignoring what he just heard.

"Well considering we're down a man, we're going to have play this smart. If they're not coming after us now, they're either regrouping before sending out patrols again or they're waiting for us to make as move." Ghost started. "Desmond, is Lady ready for recon?"

"She will be. Give me a few to do repairs." Desmond replied as he grabbed the drone out of the air.

"Alright. So how are you three doing on ammo?" Ghost asked next as he checked over his own ammo situation. See how much ammo he went through, he was happy that he grabbed the extra ammo before leaving.

"Burned through quite a bit but I got plenty." Adam said after quickly patting himself down

"I'm fine on ammo. Unlike Adam here, I pace my shots instead of firing wildly." Luna said jokingly.

"Well, excuse me. You didn't seem to be complaining about me 'firing wildly' when I drove them back after you got hit." Adam said with a smile, lightly nudging the sniper with his elbow.

"I didn't get hit, I was grazed. And you're right, you were an adequate distraction." Luna said with lightly pushing him back, earning a small chuckle from Adam.

"Anyways, Desmond, how about you and Lady?" Ghost asked, hoping to get back on topic.

"I'm fine on ammo. I packed extra and Lady's weapon's power cell recharges itself." Desmond said as continued to tinker with Lady.

"Well, at least we can effectively fight back when the time comes." Ghost said with a sigh. Running his hand through his hair and pushing down his hood in the process, Ghost's radio beeped a few times to notify him of an incoming call. On the side of his visor, he could see the familiar image of Soldier: 76 appear, letting him know who was trying to contact him. Walking into a separate room and tapping his ear piece, he greeted with the sound of heavy firefight.

"What can I do for you, sir?" Ghost asked. After hearing a burst from 76's signature heavy pulse rifle, Ghost got his response.

"Ghost, Winston called in about an explosion and not being able to raise you on comms. What's your status?" 76's rough voice came over the radio before he started barking orders once again. "Watch that left flank. Solomon, Dominic, get ready to get those civilians out of the crossfire. Move on my command." The sound of gunfire once more filled Ghost's ears as 76 opened up with another long burst from his heavy pulse rifle.

"We're a bit banged up but we're still alive. I screwed up though. A lookout noticed that a guard was missing and sent a group to check it out. That group ended up running right into us and a firefight broke out. We tried disengaging but we got pinned down in an alleyway from both sides and were forced to fight our way out. That explosion was me trying to keep Talon from following us as we retreated." Ghost explained, running his hand through his hair once more.

"We can worry about the mistakes later. For now, focus on the mission. How close are you to completing your objective?"

"Not close enough. We've located the missing agent but Talon's putting up a stiff resistance. We've fallen back to regroup and are coming up with a plan to take the objective at the moment." Ghost said. The response he got, however, wasn't from 76 but the sound of an explosion going off. "But for now, you have more pressing matters to worry about. See back on the ship, sir."

"Copy that. Stay safe out there." 76 said before he said to no one in particular. "I've got you in my sights." With that, the comm line went silent and call was ended. Ghost sighed, once again running a hand threw his hair as he thought over his options.

"You're not going to tell him about what happened with Garret?" Adam said leaning on the wall nearby.

"I'll explain what happened in my debriefing but he's not entirely at fault for what happened." Ghost said, looking out of a window that face the water, hoping the sea breeze would help clear his head while looking at the giant statue of the ancient Greek warrior. "I went over the footage Lady took earlier. A lookout on the other side of the square notice that the guard I took out was gone for too long and had a someone check it out. Probably why we ran right into Talon so soon."

"You can't blame yourself for that. That was purely bad luck." Adam argued. "What Garret did, though, wasn't acceptable. He assaulted a superior officer just because he didn't see eye to eye with what we were doing."

"That's the thing, Adam. I'm not faulting him on his reasons for attacking me. His views and opinions are his own and to him and everyone else, it looked like we were going to torture that guy. The only reason you knew better is because we've worked together before and you know how 76 and I do things."

"But you have to admit his actions were too extreme."

"I agree and he will be dealt with accordingly when we get back to the Watchpoint." Ghost said. "But for now, we can't afford to create an internal conflict within Overwatch. Not with them barely being able to support themselves."

"Alright." Adam conceded and dropped the argument. "I'm just trying looking out for you, James." Adam said as his voice became laced with sadness. "I know what's its like to lose family. I'm not about to lose anymore."

"I know." Ghost's tone matching Adam's. "Thanks, brother." Ghost said as he walked over Adam on the other side of the room and grasped Adam's shoulder, who nodded in response. Out of the corner of his eye, Adam noticed movement that drew his attention through the window.

"James, check it out." Adam said, directing Ghost's attention out the window. Zooming in with his visors, Ghost watched as a squad of Talon soldiers secure the area down the street. With no show of danger, the squad leader motioned for someone to show themselves. A few seconds later, the final mercenary they haven't encountered yet showed up. Watching the woman place a some kind of circular device on the device, they assume she said something as the squad looked at her before quickly heading back the way they came. With Talon cleared out, they watched her pull remove something from the device and make her escape. "What is that thing?"

"I don't know but whatever it is, it can't be good." Ghost said, removing his finger from the side of his visor. "Come on, we better tell the others." Heading into the next room, Ghost explained to everyone what they just saw. Not know what the object was or what it was capable of, Ghost and Adam both agreed to investigate the object and a minute later, the two were outside with Adam in front with his shield and Ghost closely behind him while Luna provided overwatch with her rifle from the window in case it turned out to be an ambush. Slowly approaching the object, they eventually entered within a few meters of it. However as soon as they took a step forward the sprung up a few feet off the ground, spraying bullets in every direction as it did so. The device bounced of the ground once more, continuing its spray of bullets but once it touched the floor a second time, the device stop shooting and broke apart. With the spray of bullets over, the everything went quiet until Adam broke it.

"Is it over?" he asked as he hesitantly peeking out from behind his shield. Ghost stood up and checked every direction to make sure no one was coming. "Fuck, I'm going to feel that later." Adam groaned as he shook his arm.

"I don't know what that was but I want ten." Ghost said as he rushed over and collected what remained of the mine. "Come on, let's get out of here." The two quickly retreated back to the safety of the house. As they entered the room the rest of Joker Squad was in, Desmond was the first to greet them.

"We heard gunshots. What happened?" Desmond asked as Adam walked past to keep join Luna on keeping watch.

"Remember that third mercenary that never showed up when we were engaged by Talon? Well turns out we were right about her bag having nothing good inside. Those gunshots were from a mine, some kind of variation of a bouncing betty that shoots bullets." Ghost explained before a thought occurred to him. "Also from this moment forward, I think I'm going to refer to them as Bullet Bettys."

"Anything else we should know about?" Desmond asked, ignoring Ghost's impromptu naming of the mine.

"Don't know. We didn't stick around to find out. We should probably expect more traps though." Ghost said getting serious again. "Is Lady ready?"

"Yeah, just waiting for you two to get back."

"Alright, send her through the window facing the water and have her start making her way toward the lighthouse."

"Got it." Desmond said as he tossed the drone into the air. Taking direct control of Lady, Desmond flew Lady through the window and then marked the top of the lighthouse with a waypoint to let her autopilot do the rest. "Waypoint set and Lady is on her way. Ready to go." Desmond said, putting the tablet away.

"Let's get a move on then." Ghost said. "V, stay here and keep an eye on Garret."

"Fine by me but Ironwood has to stay too. If his arm takes anymore damage, there's going to be lasting effects. Plus, I can't carry Garret and his gear on my own so if we have to bail, I'm going to need to help."

"Fine." Ghost agreed with a sigh. While he didn't like the idea of losing their tank, he knew better than to question the medic on matters of team health. "Adam, you heard the lady. Keep them safe. In five minutes, pack it up and move to the extraction zone."

"You can count on me." Adam said as he and Ghost grasped forearms. "Good luck out there." With a nod, the other half of the team left the building. The three agents moved in silence through the town. Half way through the town, they decided to cut through a building to reach their objective faster. However as they were walking, Ghost's visor picked up something attached to the bottom of the wall.

"Hold up." Ghost said. Zooming in on the device, he noticed a small beam coming out of the device that went all the way to the wall across from it. "Back up. I don't trust that thing." Everyone took a few steps back and got behind something. Looking around really quickly, Ghost found an apple sitting in a bowl and grabbed it. Tossing the fruit, the apple bounced into the laser. With the laser tripped, the device promptly exploded, sending a deadly hail of shrapnel outward, causing the Overwatch agents to duck behind something with a curse. Peeking out of cover to see the danger had passed, Ghost nodded to the others and the group let out a sigh of relief.

"That's going to get annoying quick." Desmond said.

"It already has." Ghost grumbled, now keeping his eye open for more traps. "Eyes open, people. I doubt that's the last surprise they have in store for us." The other two nodded in agreement and group once more set off.

The trip back to the lighthouse was a treacherous one. Not only did they have to avoid trap to keep their position unknown, the number of Talon patrols increased exponentially as they got closer, answering the question on why Talon didn't pursue them and forcing them to constantly be finding alternate routes and consume more of their time. Eventually, they ended up back in the alleyway they had their initial skirmish with Talon. The site had, thankfully, been cleared of bodies but the blood, scorch marks, and spent ammo from both sides still remained. Walking passing the obliterated remains of Adam's ballistic shield, only stopping for Ghost to pick up a bullet casing and pocket it, they continued to push up the alley and continued all the way to the stairs that lead to the balcony.

"Alright, here's the plan. Luna, set up on the balcony upstairs and provide overwatch. Dez, watch her back. I'll cloak past the rest of guards and secure the agent. Once I have him, I'll need a distraction. Under no circumstance do you two reveal yourselves until I give the signal, got it?" Both of them nodded. "Good now get a move on. Maintain radio silence." With that the two agents quickly but quietly made their way up stairs, finding Talon sniper seated in the room across the bridge struggling to get up as he had just awoken from his unconscious state. Seeing their opportunity as the other sniper turned away, the two ran across the bridge. The sniper noticed the movement and made eye contact with Luna, who rushed over with her rifle butt raised.

"Why me?" The sniper said right before the butt of the rifle crashed down on his head, knocking him unconscious once more. Down below, Ghost was easily slipping past the soldiers there. He could see the medics treating some the wounded in the building across from the lighthouse and the heavy from earlier making repairs to his weapon but no sign of the knight. Slipping into the building, he notice that the doors have been replaced since the last time he was the place and were all closed. Once inside, Ghost could see the agent slumped over in his chair and two guards standing behind him by the door that leads to the back of the building. Removing a bullet casing from his pocket, he tossed it to the other side of the room, causing both guards to jump with surprise and turn their attention to the source of the sound. Taking advantage of the distraction, Ghost bashed the butt of his rifle into the head of the first guard from behind and as the second guard turned around, he delivered a swift kick to the man's groin before slamming his head into the floor, rendering both unconscious. Not taking the time to admire his handy work, Ghost quickly rushed over to agent and started checking him over. The agent was in bad condition. He wasn't breathing and he body was beaten, bloody, and bruised. Freeing the agent from his chair, Ghost attempted to get a response from him but to no avail.

"You shouldn't waste your time. The man died of his injures earlier today during our skirmish. Stalker got a little too carried away, I'm afraid." A voice said. From the opening in the ceiling, the knight dropped down, almost on top of Ghost, who rolled out of the way and leveled his weapon on the new threat. The knight made no attempt to draw her weapons and instead opted to look over the body. Ghost watched her with a bit of curiosity but kept his finger on the trigger in case the knight made a wrong move. Watching her closely, he watched her reach into the man's shirt and removed something. Without a word, she tossed the object at Ghost, who caught it with his left hand while keeping the rifle trained on her with his right. Sparing a moment to take a quick glance at the object, his was surprised to see that it was the man's dog tags.

"Why are you giving me this?" Ghost asked suspiciously while pocketing the pieces of metal.

"Because you still made the effort to recuse your lost man even against the odds. Something I can respect." The knight said as she moved the corpse of the man and the chair out of the way. "Now here's the real question. Can you leave here alive with them?" The knight drew her sword. "I would advise you not to fire your weapon. Everyone outside would hear the gunfire and they would ruin my fun." Ghost knew she was right and had been trying to come up with a plan on how to get out since he walked to the building, to no avail.

"Your fun?" Ghost said, trying to extend the conversation to buy him more time.

"It's not often that I get to go up against an enhanced soldier." Ghost raised an eyebrow at her.

"Sorry but I think you have the wrong person." The knight just shrugged and got into a ready position. "Well if I'm going die, may I at least know the name of my killer?" The request surprised her and it showed as she drop her guard.

"Alana but Talon forces me to use the name Knightmare. A little edgier than I'd like but I'm not going to question the people who fill out my paycheck too hard. Quickest way to lose a job if you do." Ghost just shrugged in response. He knew how mercenary work was like and wasn't about to fault her for that. "I told you my name. What's yours?"

"Ghost."

"Well at least I'm not the only one with an edgy name." Knightmare said a small laugh. "You know, you seem like a decent fellow. I hate to have to kill you."

"You seem like a decent woman. I'd hate to die." Ghost said. Knightmare chuckled before once again taking her ready position, letting Ghost know that his time to think of a way out has ended. Knightmare's first move was activating her shield and charged forward at high speeds. Barely dodging the attack, Ghost once again leveled his rifle and was about to pull the trigger when he remembered what Knightmare said about the everyone outside hearing gunfire. Cursing under his breath, Ghost instead spun the rifle around used the weapon to redirect the blade. Using the rifle to block and parry her sword, Ghost was surprisingly able to keep up with Knightmare's strikes and mostly kept himself from harm, receiving only a minor injury while redirecting the blade. Knocking the sword out of the way, Ghost created an opening in her defense and capitalized on it, delivering a solid punch to her stomach followed up by kneeing her in the helmet, sending her reeling back. What Ghost wasn't expecting was for her to recover as quickly as she did. In retaliation, Knightmare quickly removed her helmet, revealing her pale skin, dirty blonde hair, and angry grey eyes, and threw the helmet at his face. In the half a second it took Ghost to dodge the offending piece of apparel, Knightmare reengaged him with renewed vigor, her slashes and thrusts even more precise than before, forcing Ghost on the defensive once more. Cursing as Knightmare scored another glancing blow, Ghost dropped his rifle and grabbed her wrist in the middle of a slash with one hand and grab her belt with the other before throwing her with all his might to the other side of the room to give him some room. Like before, she recovered quickly but instead of immediately reengaging Ghost in combat, she chose to hang back and catch back her breath.

"And you fight well." She said in between breaths. "You should join me. We can use someone like you."

"Thanks but my boss would be pissed if I did. Plus your current employers are kinda dicks." Ghost said as he kicked his rifle up into the air and into his hands.

"Fair enough." She said as she raised her weapon once more. Rushing forward, she activated her hologram, hoping to confuse him and once again tried her shield bash. The plan half worked as Ghost did get confused and side stepped out of the path of one of the Knightmares and into the other's, only he side stepped into the hologram's path, which was dissipated on contact with him. Sweeping Knightmare's legs out from underneath her, Ghost attempted to bring the butt of his rifle down on her head to knock her out but she quickly rolled out of it and made a stab at him from the ground, the blade glancing his side, creating a shallow wound. Jumping back to put distance between them again, Ghost swore as Knigthmare kept pushing forward, keeping him on the defensive. Stepping into one of her swings, Ghost was able to stop her arm with his own. With the blade no longer in motion, Ghost used his elbow to knocked the sword from her grasp, sending the sword clattering across the floor. Forcing Ghost back with punch to his wounded side and kick, it was Knightmare's turn to put some distance between the two of them. The two stared each other down before Knightmare smirked, causing Ghost to look at her suspiciously and with a bit of confusion.

"You know, I didn't think I'd have to use this but you deserved it. Go get him, girls." Knightmare said with a growing smile. As she said that, two holograms appeared, one wielding the a sword and the other wielding the pistol. The one wielding the sword quickly tried rushing Ghost with an activated shield while the other one opened up on Ghost with the pistol, the shots echoing in the confided space. At first, Ghost thought that the holograms would pose no threat like the ones prior but that thought was quickly proven wrong as one of the bullets grazed his arm, causing pain to flare up from the wound. With no choice but to open up with his rifle, Ghost dodged ducked underneath the slash of the sword wielding copy and pushed it into the wall before firing off a few rounds into the head of the gun wielding copy, destroying it hologram. The other copy quickly reacted to the 'death' of its twin by taking a swing at Ghost's neck. Ghost just dodged the attempt and drew his knife and stabbed it up through the copy's chin, causing that one to disappear as well. Returning the knife to it's sheath quickly, Ghost turned to face the real Knightmare once more. However, before he could do anything, Knightmare tackled him to the floor. Sitting on top of him, Knightmare drew a knife of her own and attempted to bring the blade down on his heart, only for Ghost to stop the stab. The two struggled over control of the knife for a short time but things quickly started to turn in Knightmare's favor. Unknown to Ghost, along the advantage of having gravity on her side and being able to put her weight on the blade, Knightmare's arms had cybernetics enhancements in them, giving her the extra strength she needed to overpower Ghost. Seeing that he was losing the struggle, Ghost instead opted to keep himself alive and shift the blade off course, causing the blade to pierce his shoulder. With a small cry of pain as the serrated edge of the blade ripped through his flesh, Ghost grabbed the knife and the held it in place and deliver a swift punch into Knightmare's unhelmeted face, stunning her long enough for him to force her off of him.

As the two stood up, Ghost winced in pain and grabbed his shoulder. Inside his visor, a warning flashed telling him that he was still losing blood and the knife still causing damage to him. Ignoring the warnings and blood starting to stain his clothes, Ghost prepared himself to once again face her but before either of them could make a move, thunderous booms came from outside as the floor shook from the explosions, with screams of panic and confusion closely following. Using the temporary confusion to get away, Ghost steeled himself for the pain and quickly pulled the knife from his shoulder, more warning flashing on his across his visor. Flipping the knife and grabbing by the blade, Ghost threw the knife back Knightmare. As she dove to dodge the blade from piercing her skull, Ghost grabbed his rifle of the floor and sprinted out of the building into the chaos outside. He could hear the cracks of Luna's sniper rifle followed by large explosions as well as Desmond opening his bag and releasing a small swarm of drones smaller than Lady that sought out hostiles and exploded as they got within proximity to their targets.

"Luna, Dez, fall back to the others. Mission failed, we're getting out of here." Ghost said over the radio, wincing at the pain in his shoulder as he bumped into a few people as he started running through the crowd. Knightmare attempted to follow but Lady suddenly dropped down in front of her and opened up with her weapon, causing Knightmare to jump for cover to avoid the burning hot rounds before Lady flew off. Once Ghost was through the crowd, Luna and Desmond quickly grabbed their things and took off running, linking up with Ghost at the bottom of the stairs. As they were making their way to him, Ghost took out a small canister that coated the wound in some kind of foam that hardened as it came into contact with the blood, temporarily sealing it the wound and injected himself with something to numb the pain. With that taken care of, the three of them took to running back the way they came. As they were running, Ghost's comms came to life and 76's voice came through.

"Ghost, we heard more explosions. What's your status?" 76 asked. The group halted, allowing Luna and Desmond to catch their breath and Ghost to answer the call properly.

"Not good. Mission's FUBAR, the agent is dead, and we're pulling back to the extraction zone." Ghost summarized. "I'll explain everything later."

"Understood." 76 sighed. "We had to drop the civilians off somewhere safe but we're doubling back. We're about ten minutes out."

"Copy that. We should be back by then. Don't leave without us." Ghost joked. "Also be ready, we might be coming in hot. We kinda had to bail on the farewell party early.

"We'll be ready, just don't be late. Now get a move on, soldier." With that, the comm line with silent Ghost focused on getting himself and the other two back to the extraction site.

"76 just called. Extraction will be here in ten minutes. Double time, people. Let's move." Ghost said and the others nodded and ran ahead of him. As they continued to run, Stalker and her squad were still patrolling the area when Desmond and Luna sprinted past them. Before they could attempt to take a shot at either of them, Ghost sprinted pass, tossing a grenade as he ran past. The grenade bounced once before going off, killing a few of the soldiers and destroying Stalker's rifle in the blast and resulting shrapnel. Before they could recover, Lady did a fly by the on the team, taking out several more soldiers before flying back over the building and out of sight. With no further complications, the three made it back to the extraction site just as the dropship opened it's door to let Garret, Adam, and Victoria in. Running up the ramp behind them, Desmond stopped for a moment and held out his hand, to which Lady flew right into and he grabbed the drone out of the air before taking the last couple of steps to get inside. "All agents accounted for. Get us out of here, Athena." Ghost called out. With that, the door closed and the dropship sped off to collect the last strike team. Luna and Desmond were hunched over trying to catch their breath while Ghost was standing there taking deep breaths.

"Ghost." Ghost spun around to see 76 and Ana approaching him. As Ghost turned around, the 76 got an even better look of Ghost's condition. Besides the large blotch of blood on the back of his shoulder that seemed to grow with every passing second, he had cuts on his arms and on his side and another blotch of blood on the front of his shoulder.

"James, are you alright?" Ana said as he rush over to check over the wound while 76 grabbed his first-aid from one of his pouches.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've had worse." Ghost said. Over the ship's intercom, he heard Athena announce that were en route to the last location.

"Come on, Let's get you patch up." 76 said pointing over his shoulder to the stairs leading to the back of the ship with his thumb. Ghost nodded in agreement and he, 76, and Ana all walked over to the stairs. Halfway up the stairs, Ghost turned and called out to Adam.

"Adam, when Winston's team come aboard, let him know we're up here so no one thinks we're dead."

"No problem." Adam said giving him the thumbs up. "I still want to know what happened out there." Ghost just returned the thumbs up.

"You sure you don't want my help?" Victoria called out. "I am trained to handle injuries like this."

"I think we're okay but we'll let you know if we need the help. Check with everyone else and make sure they're alright." Ghost said. Victoria frown at the order but did as she was told and checked on the others. Catching up to 76 and Ana at the top of the stairs, Ghost was surprised to see a small stool but decided not to question it.

"Take off your armor and and your shirt." 76 said. Ghost complied without question and began stripping off his chest piece. Getting his armor and shirt off, Ghost sat on the stool.

"Jack, you might want to see this." Ana said from behind Ghost. 76 just raised an eyebrow and walked over to see what she was talking about. As he walked around, his eyes widened as he saw what she about but remained silent.

"That bad, huh?" Ghost said with a pained chuckle. He could feel the numbness fading away and the pain returning with vengeance.

"James, what happened to you down there? There's an exit wound on the other side of your shoulder." With a sigh, Ghost explained everything that happened from his initial recon of the Talon's forces to the fight between him and Knightmare before his escape and everything in between, only making brief pauses to wince in pain as Ana attempted to treat his wounds. 76, on the other hand, listened to every word of Ghost report. While not visible, he frown when told about the introduction of the three new mercenaries and especially did so when told about the complication that came up between the Ghost and Garret. With his report coming to a close, Ghost heard Athena announce that they have arrived at the well and the doors opening with a hiss.

"Jack, this injury is too much for me to treat alone. I'm going to get Angela. Make sure James doesn't bleed out while I'm gone." Ana said, gesturing to the hole in Ghost's shoulder. 76 nodded and checked over the temporary bandaging on Ghost's shoulder only to find that he was already bleeding through them.

"How are you feeling?" 76 asked.

"Oh so now you ask?" Ghost said with another pained chuckle. "A little headed from the blood lose." Ghost shifted uncomfortably. "Also a bit uncomfortable from some blood that's trying to make it's way to my ass." 76 let out an amused grunt as he watch Ghost reach around his back to wipe the blood away with a piece of cloth. "I didn't think the blade would pierce all the way through." He muttered to himself.

Downstairs, Ana waited at the top of the ramp as the last of the Overwatch agents made there way aboard. Greeting them as they passed, Mercy finally came into view talking to Tracer from behind Reinhardt.

"Angela." Mercy looked over to see Ana and smiled.

"Oh, Janina. How are you? Did your mission go well?"

"It went well but we can talk about that later. I need to ask for your help. Ghost's mission didn't go that well and he was injured." Ana said began but was cut off by Tracer.

"Wait, James was injured?" She said, concern clearly showing on her face. "Is he okay? Where is he?"

"Don't worry, he's okay for the most part. He's in the back of the ship with 76." Without any further explanation, Tracer blinked past Ana and shot up the stairs, looking for the injured soldier. As she reached the top of the stairs, she found Ghost shirtless and holding his shoulder. Under normal circumstances, she would have taken a moment to take in the image of Ghost sitting there shirtless but as of the moment, her attention was focused on the bloodied bandages scattered on his body, mainly the large on his shoulder.

"James!" Tracer called out as she dashed over to him. Ghost almost jumped at the sudden appearance of the young woman and her sudden exclamation.

"Lena?" Ghost said with a bit of confusion.

"What happen to you, love?" She said kneeling in front of him, seeing the bandaging on his shoulder bloody on both side. Ghost didn't say anything and just opted to remove his mask and setting it on his lap. 76 was about to stop him but a look from Ghost halted him and instead decided to give the two some room and wait for Ana and Mercy by the stairs.

"I'm okay, Lena." Ghost said. Tracer continued to look at him with eyes full of concern but they quickly melted away as James smiled at her and spoke up again. "I promise."

"If you say so." Lena said returning the smile and removing her goggles to let it dangle from her neck before wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her forehead against his. "But this is the last time I'm letting you out of my sights." James could only chuckle at her words and just wrapped his arms around her in response with a smile on his face. The two only were only able to stay like that for a few moment, however, as they were reminded that weren't alone, unlike before.

"Oh my. And how long has this been going on?" Mercy said with a giggle.

"Ah, young love. I miss those days" Ana said teasingly. Both Lena and James felt their faces heat up as the blood rushed to their cheeks as they quickly released each other from each other's grasp while stumbling over their words. In their mad dash to let go of each other, James's mask was knocked off his lap and onto the floor, catching Mercy's eye as it fell, giving her more ammunition to tease Lena with later. A few moments later, the mask was picked up by 76 who handed it back to James without a word. James quietly thank the older soldier before reequipping his mask, much to Tracer's displeasure.

"Don't worry, Lena. You two can go back to staring into each other's eyes once we finish treating his wounds. We don't want your boyfriend's injures to get infect now, do we?" Mercy said with a devilish grin, causing the blush on Tracer's face to darken and was too embarrassed to try to deny the accusation of James being her boyfriend. As Ana, Mercy, and even 76 shared a laugh over the embarrassed state the two were in, they were both shared the same thought.

 _'This is going to be long flight.'_

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for your support and more importantly, your patience. You have no idea how much it means to me. This chapter is longer than most but hopefully it's just as good. Sorry I haven't been updating recently. Life is doing its thing and school has not tough me how to adult.**

 **A few things I should probably address here before I go though. Adam and Ghost are not actually brothers. They're brothers-in-arms since they initially trained together but they are not actually related. Want to** **clarify that for those that didn't understand that. Knightmare's ultimate is shown in this chapter as well as Desmond's, who's ultimate I never mention before. Knightmare's ult is called Decoy, letting her summoning two physical copies of herself, one wields a sword and the other, a pistol, both with low durability. Desmond's ult is called Swarm, which is him releasing a small swarm of drones that seek out enemies and self destruct when they get within range using explosives attached to them for high damage. Like Junkrat's riptire, they can be destroyed before reaching their targets. That's all I have at the moment. If you have questions, feel free to PM me or if you ask in the review section with a guest account, I will get back to you in the beginning Author Note of the next chapter.**

 **So what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Let me know with a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more your style or want a quicker response.**

 **Anyway, that's it for this chapter. Thank you so much for reading this story and as always, have a great day.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N**

 **Hey, everybody. Welcome to the latest chapter of this story. Thank you much for being here. I got a few questions from a few guests so I just answer them here real quick.**

 **MKF30: What's the Omnic's name?**

 **Response: I don't want to say too much because of what I'm planning to do with the character but the Omnic itself is named the Mal. You can take stab at what you think that stands for and send me a PM on your guesses but I will eventually get to it. That's all I can say for now but fear not, there's going to be a chapter soon dedicated to catching up on what he's been doing after a timeskip since he needs time to accomplish things so look forward to that if the big bad Omnic is something you're intrigued by. Disclaimer time.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and it's respective developers. I only own the plot of the story and a handful of characters.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Watchpoint: Gibraltar, Rock of Gibraltar_

"Now arriving at Watchpoint: Gibraltar." Athena announce as the dropship began it's landing approach. Everyone inside the dropship let out a sigh of relief, knowing that they made it back home in one piece. Gathering by the door, almost everyone waited for the doors to open, some more anxious than others to get off the ship. From the window on the door, they could see that the sun was setting, casting an orange glow across the sky. Entering the hanger and coming to stop, the door let out a hiss and soon opened, allowing everyone to walk out and go about their business at the base.

However, not everyone got off the ship right away. While almost everyone took the opportunity to get off the ship and stretch their legs, Ghost, Tracer, 76, and Mercy stayed aboard, Ana leaving the ship with Reinhardt as the two were engaged in a conversation.

"Now Ghost, your shoulder going to be sore for awhile so I expect you to take it easy for the next few days. No serious training or missions. Is that clear?" Mercy said.

"Yes, ma'am." Ghost said as he rotated his shoulder, trying to get use to the soreness.

"Good. Lena, make sure you two don't do anything that might upset his shoulder." Mercy looked at the young woman standing next to him with a teasing wink. Tracer looked at her confused a moment until it clicked in her head on what she was referring to and her face flushed red. "Now I must be off. Don't hesitate call me if something comes up." Stopping, Mercy looked back at the group. "Care to join me, Soldier: 76? We can finish our conversation from earlier." Mercy asked hopeful in 76 agreeing. Both Ghost and Tracer looked at 76 for his response. 76 on the hand, wasn't expecting the request and froze like a deer in the headlights for a few seconds before nodding and silently joining Mercy. With the two gone, Tracer and Ghost were left on their own.

"What was that all about?" Tracer asked.

"Don't know." Ghost said before removing his mask and turning to face Lena. "So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know yet. What about you?"

"I should probably find out where my stuff is since they aren't on the ship and I should also probably find out where I'm suppose to sleep." Ghost said as he took a quick look around the ship to make sure he didn't miss his stuff by accident.

"Oh, we had your thing moved to one of the private rooms. I can show you the way, if you'd like?"

"I would very much appreciate that." Ghost said with a look of relief. The last time he went walking around on his own, people didn't exactly make him feel welcome. Tracer on the other hand giggled and held out her hand with a smile. James just smiled and rolled his eyes but didn't hesitate to take her hand in his and let her guide him while he reequipped his mask with his other. Walking out, the two made their way to the building, past a number of Overwatch agent who mostly paid them no mind. Those that did pay attention to them noticed the intertwined hands of the two and scowled disapprovingly as they enter the building. Inside, Tracer led Ghost to the empty part of the building that he, 76, and Ana were all staying in. Reaching Ghost's room, Tracer pressed the keypad and opened door, revealing medium sized room with a bed and few other basic furnishing as well as a door that lead to a small personal bathroom off to the side. Separating, Ghost took a moment to look around the room, finding the rest of his belongs at the foot of the bed.

"So what do you think?" Tracer asked as she looked around the room.

"It's nice, kinda reminds me of my Overwatch days, except I don't have to share the room." Ghost said, getting a giggle out of Tracer. "Is that what its like in the main barracks?"

"I don't know. I only spent a night there while my room was being set up." She said with a shrug.

"You have your own room?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yup. At certain Overwatch bases, I was given a room that would let me take off my chronal accelerator and not worry about fading away. Of course, nowadays we know that as long as I'm within a certain distance of my accelerator, I won't fade out of this time stream but I still get to keep the room which is nice." Tracer said with a sad smile showing on her face, remembering her 'condition'. Ghost just stayed silent as he walked over and hugged her, surprising her but she quickly returned the hug with a smile. Separating once more, Ghost walked over to the door, closing it and locking it for good measure. With that done, he walked back over and removed his mask, tossing it on the bed, before taking a seat on the edge of his bed. Tracer, on the other hand, just looked at him with a confused look.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to you. I just don't want someone to walk in looking for one of us and end up seeing me." James said laying back on the bed. To his surprise, the bed was comfier than he though.

"Is it really such a big deal for you keep your mask on?" Tracer ask as she picked up the mask and took seat next to him, looking at the front of the mask.

"For me? No. I highly doubt anyone here, besides Adam, would recognize me without the mask. Hell, with the amount of times I've been outside without a mask, I could probably just get rid of the damn thing."

"So why don't you?" She asked as she turned her attention away from the mask and directed it to James.

"Well the tactical feed in the visor is pretty useful as well as the other functions that make my job as a scout easier." James said but Tracer could see it on his face that wasn't the real reason why. Seeing Tracer frown at the response, James sighed. "I do it for the same reason Shrike mostly wears her mask. It's more for the sake of 76 than it is for ourselves. We don't care if our identities are discovered by Overwatch but 76...he's too well known and if people were to discover who he was and see who he's became...Well, let's just say there's gonna be a lot of questions he'd rather not answer." James said with a sad smile. Tracer stayed silent, not sure how to take what was just said. The fact that both he and Shrike were willing to hide themselves away for the sake of 76 amazed her in a way. That they would show such dedication and loyalty to him.

"You three must really care for one another." She said with a bit of amazement as she laid back next to him, her hand find its way back into his.

"Yeah, we guess do." James said as with chuckle and he gently gripped her hand. The two fell into a comfortable silence after that. Neither really knew where to go from there so the energy of the room died down with the conversation to a very calm and quiet state. As fatigue from the mission slowly crept up on them, Lena's ear piece beeped almost startling them both.

"Tracer here." James could hear garbled noise of someone talking on the other side. "You got it. I'll there soon." Lena said, almost instantaneously regaining all her lost energy as she leap to her feet.

"What's up?" James said as he got up with a small groan.

"Winston wants all Overwatch agents to meet up with him." She said before thinking about what she said. "I wonder why you didn't get a call?"

"Probably because I'm not an actual agent. Not anymore at least." James said as he walked with her to the door, to which he received a smack on the arm in response.

"Oh don't give me any of that. You're just as much part of Overwatch as everyone else here." Tracer said as the neared the door.

"If you say so." James said holding up his arms with a smile, not wanting to further stall the young woman more than he already had. "I guess I'll see you later."

"I guess you will." Tracer said with a smile as she opened the door. "And stay out of trouble, love."

"No promises." James said with a laugh before leaning over and giving her a quick peck on the cheek. With that, James watched the young woman run off with her cheeks glowing red and a smile on her face. "I really should ask her out sometime soon." He said to himself as stepped back into his room and shut the door. Now alone, James spent the few minutes moving his stuff out of his bags and into the cabinets and the such. However, due how few things he actually brought with him, he finished the tasked rather quickly, leaving him to explore his room. Quickly finishing with that, Ghost decided to go check in with 76. Grabbing his ear piece, he contacted the older soldier.

"What is it?" 76's gruff voice came over the radio.

"Just checking in with you, sir. All the Overwatch agents were called into a meeting and I'm kinda at a lost to what to do at the moment. Figured you might have something for me." James said as he took a seat on the foot of his bed.

"Unfortunately, I got nothing for you. I'm just looking at the dossiers for potential recruits."

"Anyone interesting?"

"A couple of familiar faces and names but that's about it. I'm at the lounging area in the private quarters if you want to go through the list yourself."

"I'll be right down." James said as he leaned back and grabbed his mask before reequipping it. In no real rush, Ghost found 76 in a small lounging area after about ten minutes of searching, tablet in hand and his jacket off. Ana was there too, sipping tea out of a cup, her mask and hood off.

"There you are, James. Would you like some tea?" Ana said, gesturing to the small pot on the table.

"Maybe next time, Ana." Ghost said as sat he took a seat on the couch, catching a tablet 76 tossed at him.

"Suit yourself." Ana said before taking another sip. "You can make yourself comfortable and take off your mask. Athena was nice enough to shut off all cameras for us." Ghost looked up at her and then at 76, who still wore his signature tactical visor. "Oh, don't mind him. Jack is just no fun and doesn't know how to relax anymore." Ana teased. 76 just shrugged, still looking at his tablet.

Removing his mask, James went through the list of names. There were quite a few names on the list, a few familiar names appeared on it. They were mostly people he's heard about but never personally met. Clicking one of the names, the dossier for Hanzo Shimada open up. Reading the profile, the man certainly peaked James's curiosity. The bowman definitely had the skill and traits necessary and the general personality described brought up no red flags in his book. The only problem he could see with the man was his line of work. He was an assassin and a mercenary with a background as the head of a former criminal syndicate. However, closer inspection in the jobs the man had taken, you can see that the man made a conscious effort to make sure that the people he's hired to kill were people that deserved it and brought that fate upon themselves. Closing the profile, he selected another name he had heard before, Lucio Correia dos Santos. It didn't surprised Ghost that Lucio was a candidate for this newly reformed Overwatch but with how controversial Overwatch was at the moment, it won't surprise him if Lucio rejected the offer, having his own career to think about, but if he were to accept the offer, the sway Lucio had over public opinion would be good for Overwatch and show the world that Overwatch was there to do good again. Skimming through the list once more, there were a few other names that caught his eye that he looked into, such as Aleksandra Zaryanova and Tekhartha Zenyatta, before handing the tablet back to Soldier: 76.

"What do you think of the list they've set up?"

"Most of them are good picks but off the bat, we should immediately assume Aleksandra Zaryanova would deny due to her loyalty to Russia and her mistrust toward Omnics. Russia and Overwatch have always had a strained relationship because their view on Omnics. There's also a good chance Lucio would deny as well due to how controversial Overwatch is but if we show him that we have good intentions and want to make the world a better place, then he might accept. Genji's older brother, Hanzo, could be convinced but if we're truly desperate, we can just hire him." James said as he stood up and stretched. Putting his mask back on, Ghost checked the time and noticed that a little less than an hour had passed with him just reading through the list. Thinking about what was available to do, a thought appeared in Ghost's head. "Hey 76, do you think the car we used to get here is still out there?" 76 looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I dumped the car after we got from dropping you in London. I did get two bikes and hid them out front. One of them is yours." 76 said, as he fished the keys out of his jacket pocket and tossed them to Ghost. "Don't say I never did anything nice for you."

"Thank you." Ghost said with complete sincerity.

"So what do you have planned?" 76 asked, curious to what Ghost was planning.

"Planning a night out with Lena, I presume?" Ana said looking up from her book. Oh, how she loved teasing him.

"I was thinking about heading to the town nearby and check it out. We didn't really get the chance on our way through. And if Lena wants to come along, I would not be oppose to it." Ghost stated, getting a laugh out of the older woman.

"Alright. Just make sure you aren't followed on your way back and be careful."

"Don't worry, I'll be the epitome of caution." Ghost said as he started to walk back to his room. 76 just shook his head while Ana chuckled to herself. Finding his way back to his room proved to be much easier and quicker as Ghost arrived there within a few minutes. Heading inside, Ghost quickly changed into more casual clothing, losing his armor and tactical gear in favor for a pair of black pants, a short sleeved shirt, and a jacket. He kept the armored boots and grabbed the single sling backpack he brought along, storing a few miscellaneous things inside, including a sidearm. Slipping the bag on, Ghost stepped out of the room and head off toward the exit. Stepping out of the building, he noticed that whatever meeting Winston was holding had ended and the agents were trickling out, with McCree, Genji and Lena all walking together, McCree's arm slung around Genji's shoulder while they were talking. Spotting him, Lena blinked over and quickly grabbed him his hand.

"James, you should come and meet the others." Tracer said, tugging him along. He put up no resistance and let himself get pulled along and soon enough found himself in front of the two older men, to which he realized assaulted both men. "Jesse, Genji, this is James."

"Oh, we've met." McCree said looking at the younger man. "Boy got the drop on us back when we were searching for him and 76."

"I'm sure he meant no harm." Tracer said as she remember her first run in with him in the crew quarters.

"He flipped me over like a damn flapjack." McCree said.

"He punched me in the face." Genji said without missing a beat. The conversation seem to trail off into an awkward silence for a few moments before Ghost spoke up.

"I am so sorry for that." Ghost said, trying to sound regretful but mostly failing. The conversation once again fell into a tense awkward silence. It would have stayed like that but McCree looked at the two and noticed how nervous Lena was about how tense the situation had gotten between them. Looking further down, he took notice of their intertwined hands and sighed.

"Well it's all in the past now. Best we can do is move on past it and get on with our lives." McCree said tipping his hat forward to hide his gaze. He looked over and saw Tracer visibly relax as he said that and the smile returned to her face. He was having a hard time reading the man because of the mask but the reassuring squeeze from their intertwined hands didn't go unnoticed to him. With Genji silently nodding in agreement, Tracer's mood quickly brightened. "So what's with the new getup? Got somewhere to be?" McCree asked Ghost, gesturing to his outfit and remembering the completely different outfit underneath the armor that all to recognizable to McCree. Tracer looked at McCree with a bit of confusion before realizing what he was referring to.

"Oh, James, you changed!" Tracer said as she let go of his hand and blinked around him, looking him over. "What's the occasion, love?"

"Nothing. I was just bored so I was going to head into town and do a bit of exploring. Maybe find a nice pub to go to and have a few drinks." He asked as he got a bit dizzy from trying to keep track of Tracer blinking around him.

"It's been ages since I've had myself a good pint. Mind if I tag along?" Tracer asked excitedly. "How are you even going to get there?"

"I got a bike."

"I wouldn't a mind a drink myself but that sounds like a ride for two and I don't wanna to impose." McCree said rubbing his chin. "Just make sure you have her back before eleven." Tracer stuck her tongue out at the gunslinger, who just chuckled at the young Brit and ruffled her spiky hair as he walk away. Genji just gave a silent nod before walking away hoping to find somewhere quiet to mediate.

"So shall we be off?" Ghost asked Lena.

"Can we wait for a bit? I want to change first." Lena asked as she realized that she was still in the same clothes she wore in the mission much earlier.

"Sure, go ahead. I'll met you out front. I need to check over the bike anyways." Ghost said. Tracer smile and ran off to change while Ghost just walked off to go find the new mode of transportation. Heading out, Ghost headed to the where 76 said he left their vehicles. After a minute of searching, he found two motorcycles, not a hoverbike like the ones most people were familiar with nowadays. 76 always had an appreciation for the classics and so it shouldn't have surprised him but he had to wonder where and how 76 had acquired them and how he got them here. He was also immediately he grateful that he had learned how to ride a motorcycle when he was younger and often borrowed his mother's old motorcycle when he needed to travel. Assuming the blue, american made one was 76's, he walked over to the black one and started it up, the motorcycle came to life. What he wasn't expecting was that it was a lot quieter than he initially expected, much quieter that any bike he had ever known or heard of. How 76 managed that, he will never know.

Turning off the engine, Ghost continued to the inspect the vehicle until he heard the door opening. Looking back, the door opened up to reveal Lena. It was simple outfit, just jeans, a yellow shirt, her signature jacket, and finally her chronal accelerator on top of that, her goggles nowhere in sight.

"So what do you think?" Lena asked, doing a little spin to show off her chosen casual outfit.

"You look good." Ghost said, a smile hidden under his mask.

"Come on, you can do better than, love." Lena said as she walked up to him.

"Well I would say you look cute but you always look cute so..." Ghost trailed off as he turned to grab the helmet off bike, missing the blush that appeared on Lena's cheeks. Walking over to Lena, he handed her the helmet. "Here. If something happens, I want you as safe as possible."

"What about you?" Lena asked holding the helmet in her hands.

"I have a mask." Ghost said, tapping his mask. Lena didn't like the response and frowned, causing Ghost to sigh and smile at her concern for him. "Don't worry, I'll be fine but I don't want anything happening to you. You are too important, especially to me." He said. "Now come on. McCree said I have to have you back by eleven and I don't want to find out what happens if I bring you home late." Lena pouted at that and mumbled something about him having no control over her under breath while she put on the helmet and adjusted the straps. Getting on the bike behind Ghost, Lena wrapped her arms around him and held on tight as Ghost started the engine and drove off.

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. I know, not as long as the other chapters but I felt it was nice place to stop. Let me know what you think.**

 **Now, there's a couple of things we see in this chapter beside the growing relationship of Ghost and Tracer. While briefly mentioned, there were mentioned the several characters. The mention of Zarya was to show some of that rogue elements I mention before. If you need me to explain further, I will happily do so. Just me know if I'm not being clear enough here.**

 **So what did you guys think of this chapter? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Leave a comment/review and let me know or shoot me a PM if that's more your style.**

 **Anyways, thanks again and as always, have a great day.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N**

 **Hello everybody and welcome back. I'll be honest, this is just a fluff filler chapter that doesn't really serve to do much for the plot. If this sort of thing isn't your thing, you can probably skip this chapter and miss nothing of real relevance. Things will go back to normal next chapter. To those who do read it, feedback is appreciated because this is really my first real attempt at writing romance stuff. With that out of the way, time for the disclaimer.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and it's respective developers. All I own is the plot of the story and some of the characters.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _La Linea de la Concepcion, Spain_

Bringing his bike to a full stop, Ghost felt Lena loosen her tight grip on his torso.

"First time on a motorcycle?" Ghost asked Lena finally let go of the him entirely. Nodding her head, Lena removed the helmet, showing her smiling ear to ear.

"That was amazing!" Lena said excitedly. Ghost could only smile and laugh as he shut down the engine and lowered the kick stand. Getting off of the vehicle, he looked around quickly and saw barely anyone there. Those that were still around payed them little mind. Bringing a hand up to his face, James removed the mask and put it inside of his bag, earning him a confused looked from Lena.

"The mask will just draw attention." He explained.

"Speak for yourself, love. At least you don't have to wear a glowing chest piece 24/7." Lena said, poking her chronal accelerator.

"Fair enough. Guess I better put it back on then." James said with a coy smile as he shifted his bag to his front to retrieve his mask.

"On second thought, forget I said anything." Lena said quickly, earning her a laugh from James. Pouting at him, she turned away and let out a huff of air as he pretended to be annoyed with him, crossing her arms for added effect. However, the act was quickly drop when she felt him quickly give her a peck on the cheek, causing her to blush and look back at him.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. You're just too adorable when you pretend to be angry." James said with a smile before looking around at the surroundings. He had parked them not far from the water and he could see the beach from where they were standing. More importantly, it was a lovely night for a walk with a clear sky, a crescent moon, and a cool breeze coming from the water, carrying the scent of the sea with it, something he personally loved. "Shall we be off?" James asked as he turned his attention back to Lena and held his hand out for her, which she happily took.

"So where are we going?" Lena asked as they started walking.

"Don't know. Figure that we just start walking toward the water and then from there, go wherever looks interesting." James said, enjoying Lena's company. It left a warm feeling in his chest. Lena seemed to accept the answer and happily looked around as they walked down the street. Normally, she would be blinking on ahead and checking out anything and everything that caught her eye but instead, she found herself content with walking with James, enjoying the sights and small talk. She normally wasn't one to take things slow but she found herself enjoying it this time. "So have you were been in this town before?" James asked, breaking the small silence that they had going.

"I passed through a handful of times on my way to meet Winston when I couldn't take the Orca."

"The Orca?"

"Yeah, that's what the dropship is." Lena explained. James thought it over for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, okay, I can see that. It does kinda look like a whale." James said, earning him a smack on the arm.

"Hey! That's my baby you're talking about." James could only laugh at her expression as she continued to try to be angry at him. "Stop laughing, I'm trying to be cross with you." Lena said as she tried suppressing a smile that was trying to slip out before finally failing and erupting into laughter. Stopping their walk, the two let the laughter dying down before they could continue. Taking a few deep breath to make sure the laughter was out of their systems, the two stood there with a smile on their faces until James gently took up Lena's hand once more. Lena happily intertwined her fingers with his and the pair continued their walk to the beach. Letting themselves slip into a comfortable silence until they finally arrived at the edge of the beach.

"So where to now?" James asked facing Lena.

"I'm not sure." Lena said looking around before something caught her eye. "Still up for that drink?"

"Sure. See a place that catches your eye?" Lena pointed behind James causing him to turn around and catch sight of the pub Lena was pointing at. "Oh. Well that'll work."

"Come on." Lena said with a giggle as she took James's hand in her own and pulled him along. Walking through the door and getting their seat, the woman at the bar walked over to them.

"What can I get for you?" She asked Lena, an Irish accent evident in her voice. Her eyes glanced down at the chornal accelerator on Lena's chest with a raised eyebrow before looking back up at her face.

"I'll take a pint, please." Lena said cheerfully.

"And what about you, handsome?" The woman asked with a wink.

"Irish whiskey, if you have any. Otherwise, any kind of whiskey."

"Coming right up." She said walking off to get their drinks. As she walked away, she caught the disapproving look from Lena before she could look back at James, which cause the bartender to smile and laugh. Quickly getting the drinks, the bartender returned to the two. "Here you are." She said handing them their drinks before turning to Lena. "And don't worry, love. I'm not trying to steal your boyfriend or anything." Lena looked down to avoid eye contact, her cheeks tinted a light shade of red, knowing she had been caught.

"What are you smiling about?" Lena huffed out as she saw James smiling out of the corner of her eye.

"Nothing." James held up his hands in surrender. "Just thinking about how I have the cutest girlfriend ever." James said with a smile. Lena didn't respond and just took a sip of her drink while James just leaned over. "And you don't have you worry about anyone stealing me away. I'm already yours." He whispered in her ear, causing Lena to sit up straight and almost do a spit take as a shiver went down her spine and a blush spread across her face once again. James leaned back and admired his handiwork with a smirk as he watched Lena chugged down the rest of her drink before excusing herself.

"Is she gonna be okay?" The bartender asked as she came back to collect the empty glass. James quickly drained his glass before responding.

"Yeah, she'll be fine. She just needs a moment." James said before handing her the glass. "Can I get another please."

"Is she a lightweight? I know that these glasses aren't exactly small but I never seen someone's face that red after one drink." The bartender asked as she got him another while eyeing the glass that once held Lena's drink.

"I don't know. I'll keep an eye out on how she walks and let you know to cut her off or not." The bartender just scoffed at him.

"You just looking for an excuse to stare at her arse."

"Maybe." James said with a shrug, downing another mouthful of his drink as a couple of calls came from the other side of the room.

"Quit your yelling. I heard you the first time." the bartender yelled back. "I'll be right back." She said walking over to deal with the loud patrons, leaving James on his own. A few seconds later, Lena reemerged from wherever she ran off to, her face still a bit red.

"You okay?" James asked her with a grin, yet the concern was still evident in his voice.

"That wasn't very nice, teasing me like that." Lena said with a pout.

"Who said I was teasing?" James calmly responded.

"But the way you said it..."

"Doesn't mean I was lying. I meant every word of it." Lena's eyes widened as he said that and look over him.

"Wait, does that mean-?"

"That I like you? Yeah, I do. Won't have kissed you all those times if I didn't." James said. As he looked over at the young woman next to him, he was met with the surprise of her arms around his neck and her lips crashing into his. Pulling her close, he help Lena as she climbed on his lap and held on to her. The two were quickly caught up in the moment and with each other that they completely forgot where they were until the bartender returned.

"Hey, if you two are going to shag, do somewhere else. I don't want to have clean up after ya." She said as she looked at the two. Both broke the kiss and looked at her, red in face and slightly breathless. "If I see you going at each other like that again, I'm cutting you both off for the night." She threatened as she walked off. While neither were heavy drinkers, after the stunt they just pulled and the looks they were getting from rest of the patrons now, both could use another drink. The two stayed there for a couple of moments before Lena broke small silence that had formed.

"Well, that just happened." Lena said looking back at him with a shy smile.

"I won't mind if it happened again." James said with grin. Lena bit her lip in thought for a moment before leaning in.

"Ask me again later and I'll be happy to do it again." She whispered into his ear before she slid off his lap and moved her chair a bit closer to his before sitting back down, signaled for a new drink while James quickly finished his. Soon enough, the bartender came back with Lena's drink.

"What about you? Want another?" She asked James. He was about to ask when a thought struck him.

"Can't, I'm the one driving us home." James said with a sigh, remembering that had to drive. "I will take a water, though." The bartender just nodded and walked off before coming back with a glass of water. "Thank you." Taking a sip of the cool water, he noticed Lena still looking at him with a smile. "Lena, you're staring. What's up?"

"Nothing, I'm just thinking about how I have the cutest boyfriend ever." She said, using his own line against him. James could only smile back at the young British woman.

"Really? Tell me about him." Lena giggle and decided to play along with him.

"Oh, he's got the most beautiful dark brown eyes and the softest black hair." Lena said as she reached over and ran her hand through his hair while James just laughed.

"I don't think he's going to like me much."

"And why's that?"

"Because I think I'm sweeping his girl off her feet." James said before the two shared a laugh. It didn't last long before the two fell into a comfortable silence once more. After they both took a sip of their drink, Lena finally spoke up again.

"Being honest here, I was wondering if you were ever going to ask me out or if I was going to have to matters into my own hands."

"Seeing as we're being honest, I was trying to think of a good time to ask and after you asked to join me on this little adventure, I thought tonight would be the best time but, again, being honest here, it didn't go as plan." Lena gave him a surprised look. "I originally wanted to just find a nice spot under the moon and stars on the beach but telling you over a handful of drinks works too and I'm definitely not complaining about the results." That earned him a laugh from Lena and peck on the cheek.

"Don't worry, you can make it up to me later." Lena said, placing a quick kiss on his lips. James just smile and happily returned it.

"So what do you want to do after this? We basically have the entire night to ourselves so we can continue to exploring the town or we can head back and just relax there?"

"We should keep exploring. Who know what else we might find." Lena said excitingly. Any energy that Lena seem to have lost earlier was immediately regained. "Let me finish my drink and we'll go."

"Alright, I'm up for it." James said getting caught up in Lena's enthusiasm. Taking out his wallet, he put down the money to pay for all of the drinks while Lena finished her's. Seeing them getting ready to go, the bartender walked over and collected the empty glasses and the money. She was about to get the James's change but when she looked back, the new couple was already gone, looking for what else the town had to offer.

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for reading this probably mess of a chapter. This is my first real attempt real attempt at something like this so I apologize if this isn't up to par with the other chapters. That said, the plot continues next chapter. This was just to make Ghost and Tracer's relationship "official" or at least "official" between them. The others, or at least the ones who haven't figure out what's going on between them, will find out eventually. They're not exactly subtle or trying to hide it.**

 **So I have a question for anyone willing to answer, I'm curious to know what you guys want to see. I'm tossing around a couple of ideas but I'd like to hear your opinion on things.**

 **But until then, what did you think of this chapter? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Let me know with a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more your style.**

 **Anyways, thanks again and as always, have a great day.**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N**

 **Hey everybody, welcome to the latest chapter of this odd story. Thank you so much for reading this story and especially thank you to those that reviewed and left me feedback. This chapter starts in the morning after Ghost and Tracer's date. I'll leave you to use your imagination on what happened after they left the bar.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and it's respective developers. All I own is the plot of this story and a few of the characters.**

 **Now onto your story.**

 _Watchpoint: Gibraltar, Rock of Gibraltar_

Ghost let out a quiet, tired yawn as he walked down the stairs to the meeting room under the launch pad. Being woken up on first thing to be told they had a meeting to go to was not something he expected or particularly enjoyed, especially since he and Lena got back well past midnight and he didn't exactly get much sleep afterward.

"Late night?" Soldier asked him.

"Yeah." Ghost said. "Didn't exactly get a lot of sleep either." Ghost sighed as he cracked his neck and his thoughts fell back to when he was awoken not long ago. He had woken up to Lena shaking him awake, telling him that Winston had called everyone into a meeting. After escaping his attempts to stay in bed longer by pulling her back under the covers and making sure he wouldn't fall back asleep, Lena let him know she was going on ahead and would meet him there. Changing and strapping on his armor and tactical gear, Ghost started the walk to the meeting room, where he met up with 76 and Ana on his way out.

Entering the room, they looked at the floor below from the platform by the door where most of Overwatch seem to be crowded. Staying up on the platform above, Ghost turned around leaned on the railing and began researching things on his tac-pad while waiting for the rest of the Overwatch agents to show up.

"Any idea what this is about?" Ghost asked quietly so only Ana and 76 could hear him.

"No clue. The whole thing seems last minute, if you ask me." 76 said as he observed the agents. Ghost couldn't help but agree. That much was clear from how many agents were trickling in and how unprepared for this everyone looked. After a few more minutes of waiting and watching the remaining agents trickle in from the other doorway, someone finally decided to address the elephant in the room.

"Now I don't mean to be rude but can someone let me know what we're all doing here?" McCree said from his spot on the wall, blowing smoke upward from his freshly lit cigar.

"You know, smoking's bad for you health." Mercy said from her seat around the table, looking up from the papers in front of her.

"Well, I have faith that you can patch me back up, doc." McCree said with a smile while Mercy just scoffed at him and went back to reviewing her papers. Finally, the last of the agents walked in, two of them being Luna and Adam, who looked like they had just woken up. Seeing Ghost, Luna gave him a tired salute and continued walking without a word until she reached the foot of the stairs where she sat down on the stairs with a few other agents. Adam, on the other hand, stopped to talk to Ghost.

"Any idea what's going on?" He asked as he leaned on the railing next to Ghost.

"Nope." Adam just groaned as he dropped his head and ran his hand through his hair.

"Fair enough. To be honest, I didn't think I would see you three here." Adam said as he heard Athena tell Winston all agent were accounted for.

"Thank you for all showing up here on such short notice." Winston said, getting everyone's attention and rousing the handful that were trying to fall back asleep. "Now, I'm sure you are all wondering why I've called you here."

"Among other things, yes." Desmond said from his spot on the stairs, getting a few laughs and breaking any tension in the room.

"First off, let me congratulate everyone on a job well done on yesterday's mission. While we may not have been able to accomplish all of our objectives, we accomplished enough to consider this a victory." Almost everyone glanced at a member of Joker Squad, much to their displeasure, as they weren't only ones to not complete their mission. "Now allow me to explain why we're here. Last night, word got out about our involvement in shutting down the Talon operation in Ilios. While the UN as called for all of us to turn ourselves in or be faced with the full punishment for violating the Petras Acts, the survivor's at Ilios have taken upon themselves to vouch and stand by us." Winston explained.

"Winston, please don't tell me you called us down here at 6am on our day off to tell us about good publicity?" One of the agents asked.

"No, I assure you there is a point to this meeting." Winston said, adjusting his glasses. "The point of this meeting is to make you all aware of what we're up against and to figure out our next step." No one said anything this time and let him continue without interruption. "After Ilios, we've marked ourselves as a serious threat against Talon. We expect them to dedicate resources into find and eliminating us as well as them increasing their security on their other operations around the world. Along with this, the UN will do everything in it's power to have us brought in or brought down, which means Helix International Security will be hunting us as well. With all that said, we have to figure out what we're to do next." While no one spoke up, everyone was now wide awake and alert, the list of threats they were now faced with was a wake up call to everyone. It was silent for a few minutes until someone finally did decide to speak up.

"I think before we can think about our next move, we have to figure out what Talon is going to do to retaliate. There's no way they're going to take that attack on their operation in Ilios lying down." Someone suggested.

"You'll be surprised." A voice echoed into through the room. Everyone turned to look at one who spoke, Ghost, surprising more than a few people when they saw him, 76, and Ana standing there on the platform above. "Talon doesn't have many opinions in this situation. They made the mistake of underestimating Overwatch's capabilities again and now they're paying for it. They've been forced to abandon their operations in Ilios along with a good amount of supplies and agents as well as force other assets to go underground due the attention they've brou-"

"I'm sorry but who asked you?" Someone interrupted him. "This is an Overwatch meeting. Why are you here?" The man didn't even bother to cover up the annoyed tone in his voice. Ghost looked at the man who spoke up and noticed it was the one agent who was standing guard outside of Doctor Ziegler's office from when he and 76 went for their check ups, the one that tried to threaten them.

"Hey now, they have as much reason to be here as we do." Tracer said in defense of the three former agents. Ghost smiled under his mask and gave a appreciative nod at Tracer when she looked at him.

"No, they don't. They've made it clear they aren't part of Overwatch so they have no right being here." This time it was Garret who spoke up, not surprising anyone. He was glaring daggers at Ghost. Glancing around at the other agents, he could see similar looks from some while other had a distrustful or questioning looks about them, yet a few had other held looks that showed they didn't agree with those spoke out, which gave him some hope. Shifting his attention to 76 and Ana, Ghost was having a hard time reading 76's body language, the only thing that gave anything away was a raised eyebrow while catching a few choice words in Arabic muttered by Ana. Finally, after a few tense moments, 76 grunted and stood up straight.

"You're right. We're not Overwatch which means we don't have time to be wasting here. We have work to do to." 76 said coldly, his voice betraying no emotions, before turning and heading up the stairs back to the surface. Ana and Ghost shared a look before she sighed and walked away to follow Soldier: 76. Watching them go for a few more seconds, he let his head drop as he let out his own sigh.

"And here I was hoping for those days off." Ghost muttered to himself before turning to see all eyes on were on him, expecting him to say something sarcastic or snarky before he left but instead, he just walked out without saying a word, which Adam found to be more disturbing.

Watching them go, Tracer was about to go after them when Winston put a hand her shoulder and stopped her, shaking his head when she looked at him questioningly. Staying in her seat, she looked at the doorway the three had exited from with a worried glance as the meeting continued with a tense and uncomfortable feeling hanging in the air. Above ground, the three soldiers walked headed began discussing their next move as well.

"So that was a completely waste of time." Ghost said as he caught up with Ana and 76. "So do we actually have a plan or are we just making this up as we go?"

"Nothing concrete yet. I'm open to suggestions." 76 said.

"Well I'm thinking we should start looking for a new base." Ghost suggested.

"What's wrong with the farm?" Ana asked.

"Not for us, the Morrison farm is perfect. I'm talking about one for Overwatch." Ghost said. "Now don't get me wrong, this is a beautiful base and everything but honestly, I don't like being in a Overwatch Watchpoint that Talon knows about and has tried infiltrating once before." Despite being annoyed with Overwatch over the refusal to trust them, it wasn't entirely unprecedented as the three of them still refused to give away any kind of information on their identities and made it known that they were no longer part of the once beloved organization.

"I see your point." Ana conceded. "Any ideas where to start?"

"We'll start by compiling a list of Watchpoints and Ecopoints around that the world and checking off the ones that have either fallen into disrepair or are currently occupied by Helix." 76 stated. "From there, we'll investigate each of the bases still remaining and see what repairs need to be made." Both Ghost and Ana nodded in agreement.

"Hey, 76, I'm going to do my list on the move. I kinda wanna go somewhere." Ghost asked.

"Where are you heading?" 76 asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm wanna go visit dad. I visited mom a couple of months ago and it's been about a year since he died so I thought it was about time I visited him." Ghost said with a sad smile before it turned sinister. "There's also a Talon facility there I've been wanting to burn to the ground."

"Just stay safe when you head out." 76 said, not sure if the younger soldier meant what he said figuratively or literally.

"No promises." Ghost said as he mentally began planning his assault on the Talon facility and deciding how he wanted to destroy the base once he was there. "I'm going to go get into contact with Flyboy and see when the soonest he can be here to give me a lift. He still owes me a few favors."

"Not going to ask your girlfriend?" Ana half asked, half teased.

"Na, I rather not burden her with my personal issues and my little revenge plot. Plus, it's a bit early to be introducing her to my parents but maybe one day." Ghost joked looking back at the stairs they had come up from, half expecting his energetic girlfriend to shoot up those stairs and coming running up to them, feeling a pang of disappointed when she didn't show. "Beside, I want her to enjoy her time off." A smile once again came across his face

"So thoughtful." Ana said with a laugh, wanting to pinch his cheeks but settled with putting a hand on his shoulder. "And I'm sure Darren would have loved her." Ghost nodded in agreement. "Now, is there anything else we should do while we're away from Overwatch?" The two other soldiers thought about it for a moment before 76 answered.

"We definitely need to restock on our supplies back home." 76 said causing Ghost to stop and think.

"Do you think Overwatch would mind if we 'borrowed' some supplies from the armory." He asked, eyeing a hallway that would eventually lead to the armory while 76 and Ana just laughed in response. "In all seriousness, I'll look into some leads and find some gun runners that are willing to do business with us, one way or another."

"Careful, James, you're starting to sound a lot like Gabriel." Ana joked.

"Ooh, please don't joke about that." Ghost groaned. "Commander, if I ever show signs of becoming that edgy, please shoot me."

"Noted." 76 said with a laugh. It wasn't long afterward that they arrived back at the private quarters and by that point, they had a solid idea of what they were going to do while they were away from Overwatch. Ana was going to head back to Giza to tie up a few loose ends and check on Fareeha while 76 was going with her to provide back up and see if he could find anything in Hakim's old compound.

Contacting their pilot, Ghost was pleasantly surprised to find out that Flyboy was already heading in his direction could make a pick up tomorrow evening, giving Ghost some downtime before heading out. After packing what he needed, Ghost decided to start making a list of gun runners that would supply the three soldiers. Stripping off his gear, with the exception of his tac-pad, Ghost dropped into bed with a tablet and got to work.

Less than an hour later and being less than successful in coming up people who were willing to do business with them, a knock on his door caught his attention. Walking over and opening it, he was greeted with the sight of Tracer standing out there looking around the hallway. However, as soon as she saw him, her face lit up.

"James!" She happily said.

"Lena!" Ghost said with a laugh. "Would you like to come in?" Lena nodded and walked in. Closing the door and locking it behind them, Ghost turned to see Lena looking around the room as if to see if anything changed from when she was there an hour ago. Turning on her heel, she looked at Ghost with a smile before it quickly turned into a frown as she saw he was still wearing his mask.

"Let's getting rid of this, shall we?" She said as she closed the gap between them and went to remove his mask. Removing the mask and tossing it across the room and onto the bed, she looked up at James and smiled. "That's better." She said.

"You know I kinda needed that for work, right?" James said with a smile. Lena looked at him questioningly.

"Really?"

"Yeah...no, not really." James said looking down. "I was working on things but I wasn't getting much accomplished so I've been watch stupids videos on the internet for the past twenty minutes." He said earning him a giggle from Lena, which quickly brought a smile back onto his face.

"So what were you working on?"

"A couple of things. New supplier for 76, Shrike, and I and I just finished packing for my next mission."

"Mission? What mission? I thought Winston gave us all the next couple days off."

"Winston gave you and Overwatch the next couple of days off. As Garret so helpfully reminded everyone, I'm not part of Overwatch so I don't get the time off." James explained as he gestured to the packed bag at the foot of the bed. When she saw the bag, her eyes widened.

"But you're coming back, right?" She asked almost nervously. James just smiled and hugged her tightly.

"That's the plan, well, if I survive, that is." He said which earned him a hit to the chest.

"Don't joke about that." Lena said, not wanting to entertain the idea of him dying while James just chuckled at the hit.

"Of course I'm coming back because I have something to come back to." James said placing a quick kiss on her forehead. It was enough to reassure her.

"Just stay safe. For me." She said wrapping her arms around his neck.

"For you." He said before their lips met in a short and sweet kiss. The two stay there with their foreheads pressed against one another and a smile on their faces for a few moments in a comfortable silence until Lena broke it.

"So how long are you going to be gone?" She asked looking up at him.

"A few days at least, a week at most." He said after a few moments of thought to think about any stops the pilot would need to make along the way.

"That long?! But you just got back!"

"I know but it's not all business. I'm actually heading out for personal reasons." Lena gave him a confused look in response. "I'm visiting my dad in Alaska before tackling a Talon facility there."

"On your own?" Lena asked to which he just nodded. "That's sounds extremely dangerous, love."

"Probably but I should be able to handle it." James said with a smile. Lena thought for a moment

"Is there any way I can convince you to bring me along?"

"Not a chance. As much as I would love you to take you along, this mission, like you said, is going to be extremely dangerous and I want you to enjoy your time off. You deserve it." James explained. "Also I think it's a bit early in our relationship for me to be introducing you to my parents." He finished with a wink.

"Gonna be hard to enjoy myself if I'm spending most of my time worrying if my boyfriend's alive or not, don't you think?" Lena joked.

"I'll be sure to keep in touch so you know I'm still alive." James said with a laugh.

"You better." Lena said.

"So what are your plans for the next couple of days?"

"I'm not sure anymore. I _was_ going to spend it with you." She said causing James to rub the back of neck. "Guess I'll have to come up with something else now."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I probably should have talked to you first before planning a new mission." James said, averting his glaze. "On a side note, I do have the rest of the day and most of tomorrow off until I have to meet up with my pilot so if you want, I would love to spend that time with you." He said.

"Of course, love. Why do you think I came here in the first place?" She said, placing a quick kiss on his lips causing him to smile. "What do you want to do?"

"Well I wouldn't mind going back to bed, only if you would like to join me. Otherwise, we can head out and find something else to do."

"You really want us to go back to bed, don't you?" Lena giggled as she remembered his attempt to stop them from getting out of bed earlier.

"If I can combine two of the things that I love, sleep and you, I'm gonna to do it." James said with a smile causing Lena to blush.

"Fine, I suppose we can sleep for a little longer." Lena said taking his hand and leading him to his bed. As they reached the side of the bed, James gently turned her around and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Lena happily returned it as she wrapped her arms around his neck again. After a few moments, Lena shifted herself around him and pushed James back until the back of his knees hit the side of his bed. With a devilish smile and one small push, James fell back onto the bed and watched Lena crawled up to him until their lips reconnected once more.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _Detroit, Michigan, United States_

It was early into the day as a group of Omnics gathered in one of the few intact building in the district. It wasn't a large group but it was enough a start. The monk at the standing in the front of the group was pleased at the turn out.

"Greetings, brothers and sisters." The monk said as the other Omnics took a seats around the room. "The Iris welcomes all of you." The monk raised his arms. From there, the monk began preaching to the group, telling them of the Iris and it's goal for peace, of how they should live in peace with the humans, and how to violence was never the proper course of action. Halfway through the sermon, however, another walked in Omnic, standing at 6'7, glowing red, and had red liquid flowing through tubes in it's body, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. They look upon the newcomer with some discomfort, clearly intimidated by his appearance, with the feeling increasing as he locked the door, behind him. "Greetings, friend. May I inquire on why you locked the door?"

"Don't worry, monk. You'll understand soon enough." The imposing Omnic said as he walked to the front of the room. "Now, I understand that your preaching to them about the Iris, is that correct?"

"I am."

"Well, allow me to give them another choice. One of action and results, one where we, Omnics, are in control and no longer fear the hatred from the lesser creatures that subjugate and look down upon us, forcing us to build their cities but still treat us as second class citizens. If you join me and my master in our crusade against the humans, I assure you, you will be greatly rewarded for your service." No one made any indication of wanting to join the cause, in fact, they showed the complete opposite of it. "No, no one? Guess we're doing this the fun way."

"Excuse me, but I must ask you to-?!" The monk was cut off as the larger Omnic grabbed the monk's neck.

"Did I mention that you had no choice in the matter?" He announced as he sent out a signal. Many of the Omnics in the rooms started shaking, several falling to their knees clutching their heads and screaming in pain. The ones not affected stood up and backed away, heading for the door. As they did, some of the Omnics that were affected stopped screaming and shaking and stood up. Once they were standing upright, they turned to the ones not affected. "Now, convert them." The Omnic monk watched in horror as the Omnics changed colours from their normal cool colours to the same ominous red as the larger one. Kicking the elbow of the larger Omnic and pulled his neck from the Omnic's grip. "Strange. How did you resist my master's control signal?"

"The Iris protects me and those who follow it. Who are you and why are you doing this?"

"Clearly not." The Omnic mumbled as he looked at the other Omnics in the room, all of them glowing red. "I'll have to look into this Iris more. As for your questions, my name is Mal and I am here to gather forces for my master but that's not important, not to you, that is." Mal said, confusing the monk and dropped his guard for a moment. In that moment, Mal lunges forward and grabs the monk by the head and lifts him up, holding him a few feet off the ground with one hand. "Because you, monk, will not be around long enough to tell anyone this information." Mal said, crushing the monk's head with no second thought. Throwing the monk's body aside with little thought, he turned to the Omnics now under his control. "We have much to work to do. Head into the town and scavenge what parts you can from the destroyed Omnic army and bring the pieces to the Omnium. Our master requires army and we will give him one, even if we have to build it from this scrap." Mal ordered before grabbing one of the Omnics as before it could leave. "Not you. You will go to the Omnic and be...'upgraded' immediately. I have a special assignment for you. I have heard rumors of the remnants of Null Sector in hiding and gathering support after their failure in London. Find them. Bring them into fold." The Omnic nodded and ran off, leaving Mal to stand there alone. Looking back at the dead monk, Mal just chuckled. "Humanity has had their chance. The time for talk is over. The lord's work will be done."

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I sure as hell felt had fun writing it but then again I'm working off of little to no sleep from like two days ago so I'm pretty sure I've gone crazy, at least more than usual. And before anyone asks, the monk is not Zenyatta. Just another Shambali monk.**

 **Now I know this isn't want I promised for chapter dedicated to Mal but this is more a small snip bit to show that I haven't forgotten about him and to give you an idea of what's going on with him. Plus, we haven't gotten that timeskip I mentioned so there's probably gonna be a few more sections like this until then to tide those of you that are curious about him over.**

 **Now next chapter is going to jump ahead to after Ghost has left the watchpoint and is already well on his way to Alaska. In this, we're going to be seeing a different side of him, one that only really comes out when he's on his own but that's all I'm going to say. You'll just have to wait until next chapter.**

 **But until then, what did you think of this chapter? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Leave me a comment/review and let me know or shoot me a PM if that's more your style. I'm curious.**

 **Anyways, thanks again for everything and as always, have a great day.**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N**

 **Hey everybody, how's it going? Thank you so much for being here and more importantly, thank you for the support. I wasn't sure if the last chapter went up properly but I'm glad to see it did. I will warn you that this is going to be a fairly long chapter but besides that I have no idea what else to put here so we're going straight to the disclaimer.**

 **Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and it's respective developers. All I own is the plot of the story and some of the characters.**

 **Now onto the story.**

 _Alaska, United States, two days later_

Ghost sat quietly in the cargo hold of the plane, listening to the hum of the engines through the hull. It had a day since he left the watchpoint, having taken awhile to cross the Atlantic before stopping in New York to refuel then stopping in Indiana for a drop off and a pick up of supplies. While Ghost would have preferred to have the job done as quick as possible, it all revolved around the pilot's schedule and the stop allowed him to head back to The Farm and grab some equipment he might need.

"We'll be over the drop zone in three minutes." Flyboy called out. Ghost looked over and saw the pilot. The dark haired man had been a pilot during the Omnic Crisis, providing close air support for troops on the ground. Now he was a cargo pilot, occasionally flying anyone who had enough money to pay or he owed favors to, such as Ghost. "Grab your gear and prep your bike for the drop." Of course, he always preferred to toss his passengers out the back of his plane before they could land. Ghost nodded to the man and made sure his bike and other supplies were safely secured to the hover platform they were on. Stepping onto the platform, he gave the man a thumbs up to signal he was ready and braced himself as the door opened. "Alright, remember to be at the Anchorage in two days if you want a ride out of here. If you aren't there when I get the go ahead, I leave without you. Good luck out there, kid." With that, the platform was moved out of the ship and into the open air, it's engines slowing it's decent to keep it from impacting the ground and exploding.

The decent to the ground was a quick one but felt like an eternity for Ghost, who was waiting for something to go wrong that would lead to his death. Alas, nothing went wrong and the young soldier reached the ground in one piece. Quickly removing his bike and other gear from the platform, Ghost made sure he had everything before hoping on his bike and taking off, leaving the platform alone in the clearing it had landed in before the engines gave out causing the platform to crash into the ground and turn into a fireball.

The trip took a several hours but by the time the sky had begun to darkened, Ghost had finally done it. He found his way back home. Getting off his bike, Ghost hesitantly took his first steps toward the remains of the house. Removing his mask, he looked around at the surrounding area and the sighed. All around him were pieces of the house as well as other reminders of that fateful night, all slightly grown over as nature began to reclaim the area in the year since the last human being stepped foot on the property. The Talon trucks still laid parked outside, rendered inoperable after the explosion. Remnants of the house scattered across the area. The ruined husks of his father's truck and mother's motorcycle. All of it just laid scattered about. Closing his eyes for a few seconds before reopening them, the house, in all it's former glory, stood proudly before him with a him and his father standing out front, training while his mother watched on from the sideline, laughing as she watched the training quickly turning into messing around before it scene reverted back to it's current state with a blink. Walking through what remained of the front door, James made his way through his former home, stopping in almost every room his mind replacing them with images what they use to be until the image was blown away like sand on the wind and all while grimacing at the occasional crunching and snapping of weathered down bones breaking under his boot or the kicking of ruined armor pieces left over from the squad of dead Talon operatives that were left here to rot after the explosion.

Finally, after a few minutes of slowly walking through his old home, he reached his father's bedroom, the room where he began his journey in becoming the person he is today, a ghost and a vigilante. He remembered the night of the attack was the first time he had ever killed someone, the first of what would become a long list nameless faces of people he's killed, all in the short span of a year. He tried making it easier on his conscious at first by telling himself that it was all in the name of protecting new family or avenging his old one but he knew that wasn't always the case and stopped lying to himself after a month. He's killed for numerous reasons, many of which were nowhere near as noble as protecting the innocent or his new family. While he didn't like to keep count or even the idea of it, he knew the exact number of people killed, a number that he knew was over 76's and Ana at this point. Contrary to popular belief, Soldier: 76 and Ana rarely left a body count when they went about their missions, almost always going with the non-lethal route if they could help it. It scared him a little over how many people he's killed and how it's become little more than an afterthought and a number to him.

"Guess all that Blackwatch training you gave me really payed off, huh, dad?" He said to the night sky with a cold laugh. Standing in the bedroom, he looked around and saw the spot he last saw his father, the part of the wall he was leaning against still standing with his long dried blood staining the ruined wall. Walking over, he sat on the floor and pressed his back against the wall next to where his father died, where he sat in silence. He wanted to say something to his father in the off chance that his spirit might be listening. There was so much he wanted to tell him. Of the adventures he had been on, the people he's helped, the lives he's saved, his newfound relationship with Lena, everything that's happened to him since he left home but he couldn't. He just didn't know where to start and every time he tried to speak, the words would get caught in his throat. Eventually, he just gave up trying and pulled his legs up to his chest with a heavy sigh, leaning his forehead against his knees until he leaned back a bit to retrieve something from his armor. Reaching into his armor, he quickly found the small compartment that held the old family photo. Holding the photo his hand in front of him and staring at it, he let his mind wander back to happier times.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _Necropolis, Egypt_

All was quiet at the abandoned excavation site as Soldier: 76 and Ana both stood on the top of the roofs of structure Ana has been residing in. The old soldiers used the abandoned site as a hideout before as it served as once Ana's temporary base of operations before she joined up with 76 at the Hakim's stronghold. Now it served as a safe haven for them. A place to catch their breath and regroup after missions in Giza.

"Adjust the scope half an inch to the left." Ana instructed, looking at the live feed from the telescope on the computer next to it. Soldier complied, shifting the telescope slightly. "Perfect. Now we have a clear of the Temple of Anubis." Ana looked up from the computer and looked at the city in the distance, glaring at the pyramid housing the Anubis AI. Her daughter had been there. Fighting for her life to contain the rouge program, lost most of her unit in the process, and nearly lost her life as well when she was overwhelmed by the sentry bots under Anubis's control. The old sniper grimaced at the image of the structure.

"Everything okay, Ana?" Soldier: 76 asked.

"Anubis. I'm worried he'll break containment again."

"And that Fareeha will be sent in again and this time she won't be so lucky." Soldier said, knowing where her train of thought was going. He had read the mission report. For Anubis to come so close to breaking through Helix's firewalls...he didn't want to think of what kind of destruction that would have followed. He knew Ana didn't want Fareeha to follow in her footsteps and tried to dissuade her from this lifestyle but in the end, she still joined the Egyptian military and eventually Helix. The two stayed silent from there. After they finished adjusting the scope, they retreated back into the structure. Ana quickly put some water in the kettle and turned on the fire to let it boil before moving to create more darts and grenades while 76 added to the list on the computer of where Reaper has been sighted.

About ten minutes later, 76 heard his comms go off and answered the call, his visor letting him know that it was Winston calling."

"Soldier: 76 here." He answered.

"Soldier: 76, is Ghost there with you?"

"No, he's out on his own for personal matters and for a mission. Why?"

"'I've been trying to get into contact with him but he hasn't been responding."

"Well we haven't heard from him since yesterday so you're out of luck on this end. Why do you need to get into contact with him?"

"Just needed to go over some things in his report from Ilios, that's all."

"Alright, if we hear from him, I'll let him know." 76 said.

"That would be greatly appreciated." With that, the radio clicked as the call ended. 76 just sighed and took off his mask, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Who was that?" Ana asked from her as she dipped the tea bag in the water.

"Winston. He wanted to know if James was with us. He wasn't picking up his radio, not surprising since considering where he is."

"But they don't know that." Ana reminded him. "Why did they need him?"

"Something about his mission report from Ilios." 76 just shrugged. "I'll contact him and let him know." Ana didn't respond and just went back to making her tea. Switching channels to the one that only the three of them used, he waited for a few moments until a click was heard and James's voice came over the radio.

"Hey, Commander." James said, although there was distinct lack of emotion in his voice.

"James, how are you holding up?"

"I'll live. It's just hard coming back here after all that's happened. I guess this is how you felt coming back to Overwatch?"

"Something like that." 76 said. "I got a call from Winston saying he's been try to contact to you but you weren't responding."

"Yeah, I noticed I was getting incoming calls but ignored them since, well, I kinda felt this deserved my full attention. Did he mention what he wanted?"

"Something about your mission report from Ilios."

"Oh, that's not important in the slightest. I'll contact him after I'm done with Talon."

"Alright. Let me know how your mission goes when you're done."

"Got it. If you don't hear from me within the next few days, I'm probably dead or worse."

"Just stay safe out there. The last thing I need is your parents haunting me for the rest of my life because something happened to you." That got a laugh out the young soldier.

"Copy that, Commander. Good luck in Giza and tell Ana I said hi." With that, the radio shut off and 76 just sighed. Ana just let out an amused chuckle, having listened to the conversation, and handed a cup of tea to her former commander.

"He'll be fine, Jack. James knows how to handle himself."

"I know, Ana, but that's not what I'm worried about. He's driven by revenge and anger, even if he doesn't show it anymore. I'm worried he'll end up like me or Reyes if he keeps this up."

"I'm sure James will do what's right. We can only help whenever we can and if we can't do anything to help him, I'm sure Lena will keeps him on the right track." Ana said. "Now we better get ready for own mission." 76 nodded and reequipped his mask before heading out to the grab the rest of his gear.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _Alaska, United States_

Ghost shut off his radio before he laid the last stone on his father's unofficial grave. Standing up, he look at his handy work, a pile of stones and a makeshift wooden cross made of sticks and twine to serve as a grave marker. Ghost let out a heavy sigh as he looked up to the now fully darken sky. He said one last farewell as he walked back to his motorcycle. Giving the destroyed home one last look, the young soldier revved up his motorcycle and sped away to his objective.

According the information he had, the facility itself wasn't too far. It would take him less than an hour to get there at his current speed but he was fine with that since it would give him time to formulate a general idea of what he wanted to do and the intel he was given beforehand. First thing he wanted to do was make Talon pay. The building was a research facility, a single surface buildings with multiple sub-levels underneath. The building itself belonged to a private medical research company that Talon used as a front to do their research without drawing too much attention to themselves and kept the building off the grid by using their own generators or reactors as well as had a communication jammer that was shut off only twice a day to minimize leaks, meaning whatever was going on in there, Talon wanted to keep it a secret. So if he really wanted to hurt Talon, this infiltration mission would be one of the best ways to do so.

Now, all he needed was a plan. Maybe he could destroy the jammer and leak all their data and research, see how long it takes Helix and the UN to pick up on the information and crack down the terrorist organization or he could just kill everyone inside, guards and researchers alike, and put an end to all their experiments or he could overload the generators or reactors, give Talon a taste of what happened to Strike-Commander Morrison and every other Overwatch agent that was force to go through the hell that was the destruction of the Swiss HQ or his father on the night he died. A sinister grin formed on his face as he thought over his options, however, it soon left him as his radio beeped again. He was about to ignore it when he noticed who was hailing him. How was it that whenever he start drifting back toward who he use to be, she would somehow be there to bring him back, even if it wasn't intentional? Clicking his radio, he responded.

"Hey, Lena." He said, a subtle smile appearing under his mask.

"James! Is everything alright? Winston said you haven't been answering his calls." Tracer's worried voice came over the radio.

"Sorry about that. Just need to be left alone for a bit." His voice had a subtle hint of sadness in his voice that Lena picked up on.

"Are you okay? You don't sound too good."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just finished seeing my dad. He's...doing well, so to speak." She could almost imagine the sad smile on his face.

"Oh James." Lena said with a bit of sadness, knowing fully what he actually meant. She remembered him telling her that his parents had died prior to them meeting.

"I'll be okay." Ghost said but she wasn't sure how much she believed that. "How are things over there?" He asked, hoping to change topics.

"It's been quiet for the most part. Two of your teammates got into a fight."

"Let me guess, Adam and Garret?"

"I think so." She said causing Ghost to sigh.

"Should have expected that. The two didn't seem to get along initially and what happened in Ilios and the meeting afterward didn't help Adam's opinion of Garret." Ghost said. "I'll deal with them later. Do you know what happened?"

"Nope. All I know is one of them had to be sent to Doctor Ziegler afterwards. I believe it was Garret if I heard correctly."

"Alright, thanks, Lena. Remind me to give Adam a high five and ten bucks when I get back." Ghost said.

"James!" Lena gasped.

"I'm joking." He chuckled. "I sent myself a reminder."

"That's not funny. He could actually be hurt." She said but couldn't help but giggle a little along at his joking attitude toward it. Upon hearing her laugh, a genuine smile came across his face

"I doubt it. Adam knows better than to actually hurt him but I'll talk to them when I get back." Ghost said. Lena seem to have accepted that.

"Oh, I just remembered. Doctor Ziegler isn't happy with you."

"Really? What for?" Ghost asked before thinking about it. "I guess she did tell me not to take any missions because of my shoulder."

"She said she wanted to have a word with you and 76 when you both get back."

"Sounds like we're in trouble. Well, no use worrying about it now, I guess." Ghost said as he brought his vehicle off the road and slowed it to a halt. "Alright Lena, I'm going to have to call you back later. I got people to kill, a building to blow up, and a terrorist organization to piss off."

"So soon?" She asked with a giggle.

"I wasn't exactly following the speed limit." Ghost said jokingly. "But in all seriousness, I'm about to go dark. Intel says Talon has a jammer set up and I'm about to be in range."

"Alright. Stay safe, love. Call me when your done?" She asked.

"Of course." Ghost said with a smile. "I'll see you when I get back."

"See you when you get back." With that, the call ended and Ghost sighed as he turned off his radio.

Getting off of his bike and hiding it, Ghost made the rest of the journey on foot, wanting to minimize the chance of anything giving him away, utilizing the low light mood on his visor. It took him a bit longer than he would have liked as he had to move slowly to avoid showing up on motion sensors and avoid the occasional hunting camera but he made it none the less. Climbing up a tree and removing his mask so the blue glow didn't give him away, he looked at the facility through a pair of binoculars, hoping to scope out his 'opposition'. From what he could see, everything looked relatively standard, with the exception of the guards and the occasional patrol being a bit too heavily armed with military-grade gear. Ghost was starting to worry that the intel he got from his informant was bad when something caught his eye. On top of the building, he could see a few lookout armed with sniper rifles along with the the communications array and jammer. Zooming in on them, he could see that they wore Talon armor with the exception of the helmet, which was replaced with caps and sunglasses. No idea why they would need those in the middle of night but hey, who was he to judge. While it wasn't enough to confirm if the intel was good or not, it was reason enough for him to at least looking into things further because honestly, he's done more with less to go off of.

"Let's get to work." Ghost muttered to himself. Climbing down, Ghost reequipped his mask with the visor off and got as close as he could without being seen before finally activating his cloak. Slipping past the guards outside with ease, Ghost made his way into the building as someone walked out. Looking around, the only other person around was a security officer that sat lazily at his desk, flipping through magazine. If this guy and the guards outside were anything to go by, he could tell they weren't expecting anything to happen at this facility due to how lax the security was and how they lazily went about their jobs. He almost felt bad for them if his intel was right and this turned out to be a Talon facility. They were in for a rude awaking. Heading deeper into the building, Ghost explore the building, looking for anything that might would confirm if this was a Talon facility or not, only taking breaks to let his cloak recharge in isolated areas out of sight of cameras and the occasional patrolling guards. Despite having killed so many, he, like Soldier: 76 and Ana, was strictly against civilian causalities and would rather face more danger themselves than risk innocent lives. He may have been Blackwatch but he was still raised with Overwatch's ideals and morals. It's why he didn't just kill everyone on the way in. Exploring further, he was once again starting to worry about the validity of his intel and his informant when he heard some kind commotion coming from a few nearby. Rushing forward, he soon came across the evidence he needed. The cause of the commotion was a group of Talon soldiers arguing. On one side was a group of five Talon soldier, all unarmed and unarmored. The other side was a lone Talon soldier, fully armed and armored, and pointing an assault rifle at the others.

"You can't expect us to stay here. You saw what they're doing down there. What they did to those people." The Talon soldier in the front of the unarmed group said. "Most of us ended up with Talon because we wanted to put the bots back in their place. We don't want any part of an organization that does human experimentation."

"You're joking, right? How do you think humanity survived the Crisis. Countries experimented on humans to produce super soldiers to fight the Omnics." The armed man shouted. "If you really wanted to put the bots back in their place then you would understand why Talon does this. No one else has the balls to do what's necessary. They would much rather pretend that the war is over and go back to talking with the Omnics. Only Talon can save humanity before it brings itself to ruin." The two seemed to stare off with each other before the unarmed man spoke up again.

"Get out of our way. We're leaving." He growled.

"Not happening. When you signed on, you signed on for life. Talon doesn't let people walk. They pose major security risks for this organization and we can't have you leaking any information you know." The man said tightening his grip on his rifle and slipped his finger into the trigger well. "I wouldn't let that happen. I'll kill you all here before any of you have the chance." The two entered another stare down. Just as the armed man was getting ready to tighten his finger around the trigger, he was kicked from behind, sending him stumbling forward. Quickly turning around to see who kicked him, he was met with the sight of nothing. In that split second of confusion where he lowered his rifle a bit, Ghost flickered back into existence inches away from the man and plunged his knife directly into the man's face, the body stiffening as the knife penetrated through his head. The other group of Talon soldiers immediately took a step back. They knew full well who the man before them was and what he was capable of and they had all the reason to be cautious.

"You chose a hell of time to develop a conscience." Ghost said as he looked at the other group and removed his knife from the man's face, causing the body to crumble to the ground, and approached the group, who instinctively took a step back.

"Nice to see you're as violent as always. Thanks for the assist." The man in the front said, recovering from witnessing the sudden murder. He reached into a small pouch, which Ghost on edge thinking he was draw a weapon but instantly relaxed as he saw the object he took out. In his hand was a playing card, an ace of clubs with the image of a man with line going down him vertically. On one side, the man was dressed in a Overwatch uniform while the other side was the man in full Talon gear but as the angle from which he viewed the card changed, the image of the man changed as well to show him in different uniforms and outfits, each side never showing the same thing. "What took you so long?"

"Not my fault that I had to avoid security cameras and guards while trying to make sure this was actually a Talon facility." Ghost said, relaxing a bit. "Defectors?" Ghost pointed to the other Talon soldiers in the room who were awkwardly watching the exchange.

"Yeah, something like that." The informant said, looking back at the group. "They saw what Talon was doing to other humans, some of which were other member of Talon, and wanted out. Thought I'd lend them a hand. There's a few more scatter about the place so I'll let them know when and where to regroup with us. Most agreed to help us burn Talon, just don't expect them to act like Overwatch when they do."

"That's fine by me. Just remember that they're your responsibility for the time being." Ghost said taking his rifle off his back. "Anything I need to know?"

"Yeah, you can stop worrying about cameras. I disabled the security systems and the I messed around with the radios here on the upper floors so whenever you're ready to go loud, feel free. Also take this keycard, it should get you to the sub-levels of the facility." The informant said handing Ghost a keycard. In truth, he had just walked into the security room with an suppressed weapon he took off a guard he killed earlier and unloaded it into anything and everything in the room. People, monitors, machinery, all shot up before he tossed the empty weapon to the side and walked out. On a side note, he regretted throwing that weapon away. Would have been useful right about now.

"Thanks. Are you guys armed?"

"No but if you're willing to help us, we can raid the armory before we leave."

"Let's get a move on then. Lead the way." Ghost moved out of the way and the Talon soldiers go first. Following the squad of rogue soldiers, they reached the small armory meant for the security force here on upper portion of the base. Cloaking, Ghost made his way to the guards standing watch in the security checkpoint. The first one went down without a sound as Ghost snapped his neck before moving on to the second one and plunged the knife into the side of the man's throat and pushed the body out of the way. With the two guards dead, the informant quickly went to work and the opened up the armory. With the armory open, the rest of the defectors started getting all the gear they could while the informant contacted the rest of the of defectors. Heading inside, Ghost restocked on grenades as he didn't bring any and other explosive he could he use as well as spare ammo.

By the time everyone had finished showing up and gearing up, the small group of six had turned to a group of fifteen, with a handful of non-combatants personnel coming along as well. With everyone ready, Ghost nodded to his informant and the group did their best to not look conspicuous while heading toward the roof. Anyone guard who did try to stop them for anyone reason was swiftly dealt with by Ghost. Finally, ten minutes and a trail of dead bodies later, the group was on by the rooftop exit due to the a singular dropship that waited on the roof after dropping off the latest test subject for the scientist to experiment on. Opening the doors, the informant walked out and talked to the lookouts to try to get them away from the ledge while Ghost slipped out with him. Taking out the ones that didn't interact with the informant, Ghost doubled back to hear the muffled sounds of a suppressed sidearm being fire. When he got back, he saw both of the lookouts that had gone to talk to the informant both laid dead, one with a knife in his throat and the other with several bullet holes in their stomach from a pistol fired so close they had powder burns on them. Looking at the informant, he just struggled and holstered the sidearm. Signalling the others, Ghost and the informant watched as the rest of rogue soldiers secured the dropship and started loading everyone up before some of the soldier started heading back down to gather and load up supplies.

"Ghost, hold up." Ghost stopped and looked back at the informant as he grabbed a sniper rifle and a pair of shades and tossed it to him. "Pretend to be one of the guards." He said as he donned a cap and sunglasses to cover his blonde hair and blueish-grey eyes after removing his helmet. Ghost did the same to cover his black hair and brown eyes and they stood there pretending to be look out for any trouble. "So what's the story with you and 76 being a part of Overwatch?" He asked, standing near Ghost.

"Official reason, we ran into them in Ilios and we agreed to work together to shut down Talon in the area then we bailed before they could apprehend us." Ghost explained. The informant knew what that really meant. It was information he was going to spread around, posing as one of the surviving civilians from Ilios, saying that he saw the vigilante group investigating the town before Overwatch's arrival, and then also have Talon come across the information in hopes of throwing their intelligence gathering branch into disarray for a bit to buy 76 and Ghost some more time while Talon wasted time trying to figure out what was true or not.

"And the unofficial reason?" Ghost said nothing for a moment before giving his answer.

"Strength in numbers." He said simply. The informant knew there was something Ghost wasn't telling him, which isn't anything new but as a spy, he still didn't like having information withheld from him. However, he knew there was no way he would get him to talk at the moment and he didn't have the time to get him to slip up and reveal more information so he was just going to have to accept it for now.

"Alright, just stay on alert while working with them. They aren't exactly very welcoming when it comes to people like us."

"Oh believe me, I know."

"I'm serious, Jay. I can understand you running around with 76 and helping in his crusade but Overwatch...just be careful. I don't wanted see you thrown in jail or dead because you decided to trust them."

"I'll be fine, Mac. Just worry about yourself and not getting caught by Talon." Ghost said.

"Jay, we're Blackwatch. These guys have nothing on us." 'Mac' said with a cocky grin. The conversation stopped there and the two stood there continued to 'stand guard'. After a couple of minutes, they rotated with two other defectors who were doing the same thing as them. As they did so, Ghost quickly flip his hood back up and put his mask on. Walking back to the dropship, one of the non-combatants walked up to the pair.

"E-excuse me, you're the one called 'Ghost' right?"

"Yeah, what do you want?" Ghost said, going back to his cold demeanor.

"I'm, was, a doctor here. I was wondering if I can ask a favor of you on behalf of all of us?" The doctor asked.

"Depends on the favor."

"There are 127 souls in this facility, not including us. Like us, however, none of them are innocent." The doctor said. "I ask you that you kill them all." The request surprised them both.

"Whatever happened to 'do no harm', doc?" 'Mac' asked jokingly.

"Our hands may never be clean again but unlike our colleagues in still in the sub-levels, we did not relish in the pain brought to our patients. At least I tried to ease the pain the subjects felt when the experiments inevitably failed." The doctor defender himself. "I ask that you kill them so that none of those monsters can continue their work elsewhere. You can kill me as well for my roll in all this but please don't let them live either."

"No." Ghost said simply. "I already planned on killing the others but you're going to tell me everything Talon was doing here then you're going spend the rest of your life atoning for what you've done. Am I understood?"

"Yes, thank you." The doctor thank him and walked back to the dropship to sit with the others.

"Ever the hero, aren't you, Jay?" 'Mac' said with a hidden smile. "Guess you running around with Overwatch isn't all bad if you're like this. Any idea how you're going to accomplish that task?" Ghost thought about it for a moment, thinking back to his list of ideas from earlier.

"Does place have a reactor or power generator?"

"Yeah, bottom floor, sub-level 3." 'Mac' said questioningly until realization dawned on him. "You're going to blow this whole place up."

"And everyone in it." Ghost said with no emotion.

"Are you sure about this?"

"I've killed almost 200 people already. What's another 127 souls to my conscience?" Ghost said, his head looking down. He really didn't need to the exact number. 'Mac' sighed. Sooner or later, Ghost was going to snap. He may not show it but all the fighting and killing was starting to get to him.

"Shit, Jay. I know we're Blackwatch but I think you're taking too a bit too much inspiration from Commander Reyes." 'Mac' said rubbing the back of his neck.

"I am well aware."

"Just don't turn into him, okay? We've seen enough heroes turn bad."

"I'll do my best. For now, get them out of here. Get those who don't want to fight anymore settled with new identities and lives."

"I know and get the rest ready for when the fighting does kick off. I've been doing this just as as long, if not longer than you have, James."

"Get out of here, Macen. We'll regroup later." Ghost said, a smirk hidden behind his mask.

"Yes sir." Macen said with a mock salute and light chuckle as he but his helmet back on before heading toward the dropship. It was easy for these old friends to fall back into old habits despite all that happened. The familiarity that came with their interaction was welcome by both of them but short lived as they knew it would be. They were at war and they no longer had the luxury for some comforts, even if it was a war they waged in secret. With the defectors and his spy gone, Ghost headed inside. It was easy to walk in unnoticed. The guards, both Talon and otherwise, on the upper levels were all dead, many by Ghost's hand, and had been looted by the defectors as they left. Passing by the raided armory, he decided checked it one last time in the off chance something was left behind. Unsurprising, he found nothing but a few stray rounds and a suppressor with no pistol to go with. Grabbing the suppressor, he walked over to the where the guards laid dead and check them over, pleasantly surprised when he found that one of them still had their sidearm on them. Taking it, he attached the suppressor and made his way to the elevator that lead down below.

Using his keycard, Ghost went all the way down to the bottom floor. As the doors opened, he cloaked and stood there as the helmetless Talon Guard walked over to check out the seemingly unoccupied elevator. Once he was close enough, Ghost clamped his hand down tight over the man's mouth as he pressed the sidearm to the man's stomach and fired three rounds. The other guard in the room stood to check why he's partner suddenly stopped moving only to receive a bullet in the head for his troubles by the now uncloaked Ghost.

Pushing forward, Ghost made his way to the reactor room. Entering the control room, the people monitoring the equipment turned to look at the door and went wide eyed as they saw Ghost with the stolen pistol raised. Without hesitation, Ghost started firing. Some tried to run while others tried to reach for weapons of their own but none made it far before being killed. Lowering the pistol, Ghost walked up to the console and went to work. After a short while of flipping switches and pressing button that did nothing but make him feel a bit better, Ghost resigned to just shooting the console with what ammo was left in the sidearm, rewarding him with warnings flashing across the screens telling him that the coolant was being released and the failsafes were, ironically, failing. Taking a handful of explosives, Ghost wired them to the console and set a timer before rushing in and doing the same with the generator itself. With a grim expression over what he was about to do, Ghost headed back out of the room, discarding the empty pistol and taking his rifle in his hands. Running back to the elevator, Ghost was ready to head straight for the exit when something in his mind stopped him. Having a quick mental argument with himself, he cursed and pressed the button for the sub-level above him, the floor where the experiments were being held.

Arriving, the elevator doors opened and Ghost immediately sprinted out while cloaked, not bothering with the guards this time. Running through the halls, he killed anyone that got in his way as quietly as he could with his knife but never once slowing down. As imagined when leaving a trail of corpses, the alarm soon went off, alerting the rest of the facility to his presence, not that he minded seeing as they were going to die regardless. Seeing this as his reason to go loud, Ghost started running and gunning, mowing down the confused Talon guards and researchers until he finally arrived at where he wanted to be, the security room. Bursting to the room, the people in the room were scrambling around in a panic as they tried to assess the situation and find out what the problem was. Unloading the entirety of the battery in his rifle, Ghost cleared the room and rushed over to the main console.

Accessing it, he quickly plugged a flashdrive in and let the hacking program get him and start downloading as much of the Talon database as possible while he found the control for the all the rooms where the human experiments were being held and unlocked them. Once he had done that, he grabbed his flashdrive and pulling the pins on two grenades, tossing them back into the room to cause some extra chaos. The entire time he ran back to the elevator, his conscience argued with him to go back and do more for the prisoners, to make sure they were actually taking this opportunity to escape. As much as he wanted to, the logical part of his mind reminded him that he didn't have enough time to go back. This attempt put them behind schedule and they were already cutting it close. If he went back now, he wouldn't be making it out of this building alive either. With a frustrated groan, he forced himself to focus getting out alive. He's given them their chance to escape. If they didn't take it, it was on them. Reaching the elevator, he gunned down the two confused guards and the pressed the keycard on against the pad for the elevator.

"Come on. Come on." Ghost muttered to himself as the elevator took its sweet time to arrive. Once it did finally show up, Ghost rushed in and pressed the button for the ground floor. As the door was closing, he had a last minute decision and tossed the keycard out of the elevator before it closed. Maybe there was someone actually trying to escape and they could make use of it. Maybe it was an excuse to ease some of the guilt he was feeling. He didn't know but the choice had been made and he couldn't look back now.

As the elevator doors opened with a ding, Ghost ran out and made a beeline for the exit. However, since the alarm was sounded throughout the building, the guards from outside were alerted and had come back to investigate, stumbling on his handiwork. He could hear their distant shouts as they searched for survivors. Hearing them around the corner, Ghost across the hall to the corner, firing his rifle as he did so, taking down several of them while the other were forced to dive for cover. Jumping back to his feet, he continued his sprint for the door when a bullet hit him in the shoulder, causing him to stumbling. Swinging around, he gunned down the man who shot him and kept moving. As more bullets came flying at him and chipped the walls and floor around him, Ghost quickly turned the corner to arrive at the front entrance. However, he wasn't alone. In front of him were three guards. Before anyone could make a move as the entire building shook as Ghost's explosives went off, causing almost everyone to lose balance and fall as the explosions caused a chain reaction that caused the generator to go critical. Ghost, having luckily braced himself against the nearby wall, took the opportunity to run. Pushing off the wall, Ghost ran for the door and opened it, ducking under a burst from one of the guards as he slipped out and slammed the button to close it the door, dropping his last grenade on the way out. As the door closed, the grenade went off, killing everyone in the room. Turning to run, Ghost didn't get very far as the when the building exploded, the shockwave sending him flying a good distance and tumbling for several more meters.

As he laid on the ground, the HUD in his visor flickered and blurred as a warning flashed before his eyes as his vision began to fade. The last thing he saw before blacking out was a dropship landing and a Talon operative jogging over to him and dragging him away while muttering to themselves.

"What am I going to do with you, Jay?"

 **A/N**

 **And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for being here and more importantly, for waiting for this chapter. I know it's been a long wait and but things have been pretty hectic for me since I'm going to college in a few weeks. Honestly, I'm still surprised I made it past the 3rd grade. On that, I also apologize for any mistakes that I might have missed because this chapter is long and I have short attention span.**

 **So a couple of things I do want to cover. First thing, this is the first time we really see Ghost on his own and get a glimpse into what can basically be summed up as "Blackwatch Ghost" as well as some of the conflicting ideals in his head. He knows what has to be done in this fight and the necessary evils he has to commit as a member of Blackwatch but at the same time he has the Overwatch's morals and ideals. I'm really curious to know what you guys think and how I should approach this or if I should even continue doing things like this.**

 **Second thing, don't worry Macen and the defectors. They're don't actually serve any importance as of yet. Much later on, however, they will. Just don't worry about them now.**

 **Lastly, yes, Ghost has a small spy/information network. It kinda comes with being part of Blackwatch. Originally, it belonged to his father, who worked as 76's informant, but after his death, James took over the network, adding a few people that he trust as well. (For example, Macen and Adam before Adam was brought into Overwatch.)**

 **But that's about it, so what did you think? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Let me know with a comment/review or shoot me a PM if you that's more your style.**

 **Anyways, thanks again for reading and as always, have a great day.**


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